weekending & Hello Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? 

I am linking up with Tanya from The Other Side of the Road for this blog post. I had such a great weekend! I got the weekend started off by making some chicken and rice soup—my stepmom made some for me when I was sick two weeks ago and it tasted so good to me. I tried my best to make it like hers and it turned out so good. Drew and I ate it all weekend. Todd worked Friday night and all the boys were in and out with friends—when I finally went to bed, look who joined me.

It is as cold as the frozen tundra in the upstairs of our home, so yes, I did cover little Chip up with a blanket. He was sound asleep when Todd came home and moved him to Jonah's room. 

On Saturday, my mom and Trish picked me up and we went into Memphis to shop at some beautiful boutiques that were all decked out for Christmas. I did some Christmas shopping and checked some more gifts off the list of people that I buy for.

We had so much fun together and I haven't seen them in over two weeks! I love days like that—being together, cool weather so we don't get hot having to wear face masks and spending quality time together—these are a few of my favorite things. 

I took these pictures at our first stop, a beautiful home decorating store called Le Fleur—they specialize in flowers and they're also a gift shop. I bought a gift for my best friend and I bought some pine scented room spray for me. 

Have I ever shared with you my love of tea towels? I love them and use them all the time. 

After this stop, we ate lunch at Panera (French onion soup!), then we went to a place called Social. Again—I bought myself two little things and my sister bought me my birthday gift that I came home and hung.

It's a picture of the underground railway in London. I love it and I love how it looks hanging over the couch. I may lower it and change out the pictures on either side, but for now this is how it will stay. I had to move some things around and rearrange a bit when I hung my gift.

That Season's Greetings picture was above the couch, but I moved it to the wall between the windows. I have another picture that will hang in this place when I take down all the Christmas. I took this picture of Santa because I added some fairy lights to him and now he lights up again. Isn't he cute?

For the rest of Saturday, I was in pajamas and a sweatshirt watching Hallmark Christmas movies. 

Noah went and picked up the sushi I ordered us for dinner—he was the only one here to eat. For the rest of the night I ordered more Christmas presents and watched movies. It was glorious. 

On Sunday I was at church bright and early for praise team rehearsal, then that afternoon we attended a beautiful wedding. 

The wedding was at a venue nearby called Heartwood Hall. Isn't this house gorgeous? I love a plantation style home and I've been inside this one once—it was incredible. There are so many of the original things in the house, like the flooring and creaky stairs.

Holly was one of the first teenagers I ever got to know at Collierville First Baptist Church—she was a freshman or sophomore when I first met her, back in the days of when my boys all attended kids camp. She was always a counselor with me and she quickly became one of my very favorite people. 

Isn't she beautiful? The wedding was simple and perfect for Daniel and Holly in every way. Both my husband and I wiped tears as he recited his vows to her—he is a police officer and he vowed to her that if he never made it back home to her, that the men standing behind him would be sure to care for and watch over Holly. 

I love this place and I love all the details that they put into every area of the venue. 

We sat near some friends from church and enjoyed also sharing a table with them for dinner at the reception. 

I had my best friend on one side of me and on the other side I had this man—my handsome, favorite and forever wedding date. I love doing things with him and I felt like this night was the perfect Christmas date night. I am such a romantic at heart—weddings are my favorite, but Christmas weddings are PERFECT. After we had some wedding cake, Todd and I left arm in arm and we headed home. We ended the night in pajamas, him watching some fights on tv and me working on blog stuff for this week. I'll share more about the coming week on another day. Until then, thanks for reading my blog!

Love to all. [Pictured below is an exerpt of my latest article for Tirzah online magazine.]