Christmas 2015

Hi Peachies! Happy last week of 2015! I flew off the radar last week with all of our Christmas preparations and celebrations. This weekend I was still re-cooping. Today I still feel Christmas hung over. I'm beyond exhausted but it was a wonderful Christmas.

Here's how it started....

Decorating our pretty tree.

(My honey and I putting our wedding favor ornament on the tree).

(Family selfie)

All the Christmas things

(Our Elves; Jingles and Dash took temporary retirement this year. They're awaiting a new family member so they can resume their work).

We started the parties off with a Christmas Party with my Dad's side of the family the Sunday before Christmas.

(Let's talk about my face in this one. I've got no clue what was going on. Not one single clue.)

(My hubby, me, our son, my mom, & dad)

We also made gingerbread houses and cookies.

We continued on with Christmas Eve with my in-laws.

(My son and Mother in Law. She loves that kid. She was kissing him.)

Christmas morning was a bit different. Every year of my entire life we've been with my mom and dad at their house on Christmas Eve. This was our first married Christmas though so we had Christmas morning at our house, complete with breakfast.

My Mom, Dad, Grandma and Brother came over Christmas morning and spent the morning with us.

Christmas Day we continued the tradition of going to my mom's Uncle's house.

(My hubby & I-I was already exhausted at this point in the day. And my Dad and Brother.)

After we left there we went to my mom and dad's house and had our third Christmas that day with them.
After all the gifts were unwrapped we played Family Feud. We were all too tired to really get into it but it was fun.

Then we came home and I spent the next couple hours doing laundry because my son left for Illinois for the week with my Mom and Dad the next morning.

We were blessed with another wonderful Christmas full of love and laughter. I hope you were, too.

My favorite gift has to be my stacking rings my hubby bought me.

He really surprised me with this because they were not cheap and each one was sold separately but he knew how much I loved them and bought them all for me! I really thought I wasn't going to get any of them & that would've been okay, too so you can imagine my shock when I opened them.

What was your favorite gift this Christmas?

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Christmas Questions

Hi Peachies! Are you ready for Christmas yet? The countdown is officially on. We're down to the wire now. I always have mixed feelings about this week of the year. Part of me is ready to get this over with so I can relax and part of me is sad to see it go. The month of December flies by.

We're now two days away y'all but it's 9 a.m., I'm still in my pajamas and it's pouring rain so I haven't done a countdown pic yet.


To get my family and friends in the Holly Jolly Spirit, i've been asking a daily Christmas Question on my personal Facebook account. Today, i'm sharing those questions with you. Feel free to leave your responses in the comments section, especially today's answer. You'll see why at the bottom of this post , just know, I love a good love story.

Christmas Questions

1. Holiday lights: White or colors?
For me, I love Colored lights. They remind me of my childhood.
Our tree always had colorful lights on it and my grandma's did too.
She even had those fun bulbs that bubbled like lava lamps

2. Favorite Christmas movie?
My favorite Christmas movie would have to be National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
It never gets old & it's the very first movie I watched with our friends Crystal& Greg when Alex introduced us all.

3.Are you a Coffee, Hot Chocolate, or Egg Nog girl/guy?
I'm coffee all the way!!
Hot chocolate is okay, it's never been my favorite and Egg nog just sounds gross to me.

4. Real tree or Fake?
We're real tree people all the way here. I love the smell and just the way they look. I grew up always having a real tree so we've continued that tradition in our little family of 3.

5. Does your family have an elf. If so, what's his/her name?
Share a picture if you'd like.
We have two that are in temporary retirement.
They're awaiting the arrival of a new baby (not anytime soon. Sorry to disappoint).
They currently sit in our living room though.
Here are Jingles & Dash.

6. Does Santa wrap presents or sit them out at your house?
Growing up he always sat them out around the fireplace. He's always done the same for Dylan, too.

Days 7 & 8 were skipped apparently.

9. What's your favorite Christmas tradition?
For me it's spending countless hours in the kitchen, cooking with my family.
It's always the best time together.
And since Alex & I started dating we created the tradition of going on out Dec. 23rd to look at Christmas lights together.

10. Candy Canes on your tree or not?
We've never put them on ours but this year I did.
I wanted to do something different & fun!

11. Fruit cake-take it or leave it?
I'm a leave it kinda girl!

12. What's your favorite Christmas treat?
For me, it's these butterscotch haystacks that my mom makes.
They're the crunchy Chinese noodles covered with melted butterscotch.
I could eat them until I got sick.

13. What's your favorite Christmas decoration?
Mine is the star on the top of our tree. When Alex, Dylan & I got our first Christmas tree we didn't have many decorations and not a ton of money to spend on them either. We went to the Dollar General and bought some things, our tree topper was one of them. It's nothing fancy but it's pretty and it's special to us. It reminds me of our first Christmas together and how we don't need much to be happy.

Days 14 & 15 were skipped, too.

16. What's your favorite gift to give or get?
I've never gotten a bad present but my favorites are always baskets full of goodies.
Last year my mom made us a kitchen themed one & often my neighbor & I exchange baskets full of make up and other goodies.

17. Does your family do Christmas Eve pajamas? Do they match?
We have since I can remember. Every Christmas Eve we get to open up a gift of new pajamas to wear that night.
It's been a fun tradition and one we've carried on.
We never have had or done matching ones though.

18. Do you make gingerbread houses?
We do every year with Dylan. We usually wind up cleaning up candy for months to come, too!

19. What kind of treats do you leave Santa?
Here we're all about cookies & milk. But we hear the Jolly Man isn't too picky.

I skipped Day 20, too!

21. At any of your Christmas Parties do you do a White Elephant gift exchange?
We do at two of ours and there's always lots of laughs shared!

22. Do you enjoy wrapping presents?
If so share one of your secrets to enjoying it with us.
Obviously, I do NOT enjoying wrapping presents. Half of mine don't have ribbons on them and they all look like they've been wrapped by a 3 year old. I honestly just wondered if I could hire someone to wrap presents for me next year.

23. How did you propose or how were you proposed to?
This one is not really a Christmas Question but two years ago today Alex proposed to me so today I want to hear your engagement stories.

We had been at my parent's house in the day Alex proposed to me. He and my Dad had been on the back porch discussing a tree that needed to be cut down. That's when Alex asked my Dad for permission to marry me.

Later that night, when it got dark, Alex, Dylan and I left to go look at Christmas lights. He made up this excuse that something was going on in the neighborhood (one of his friends apparently texted and told him this) and we needed to stop by the house to check on things. I was a little annoyed but I would've felt awful if it were true and something happened so I agreed that we should go check it out. As we were pulling into the neighborhood we heard sirens so I figured it must be true.

When we got home Alex sent Dylan downstairs to get on his computer so I sat down on the couch (really annoyed at this point) and Alex turned on the Christmas tree lights and asked me to come look at the tree with him. I thought this request was unusual because I was all of three feet away from the tree, I could see it perfectly fine. I probably rolled my eyes as I gave into his request. As i'm standing with him by the tree he starts talking about how he's so glad we're together & how he's always loved me then he got down on one knee & asked me to marry him. My response was "Are you crazy? Of Course!" Then we called Dylan up stairs and told him. His response was the best. He was sobbing and said "this is the best Christmas ever. You can take back all the presents you got me because I have the best one. I have a Dad."

Turns out that Alex had several different scenarios planned out to propose to me but they never worked out. He said that he just couldn't wait anymore. This one is perfect because this marked the first big milestone together in our house. It was quiet and not a big to do, just like we are. It also turns out that Alex had to send Dylan downstairs when we got home because they had already talked before and Dylan was already fighting back the tears. Alex knew if I saw Dylan crying I would know something was going on.
Alex definitely made my favorite holiday even more special.
so how did you propose or how were you proposed to?



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Christmas Gift Swap

Hi Peachies! This year I participated in a Christmas Gift Swap with the lovely Jasmine from CSandSBlog. I did one of these back with my sweet friend Terri Lynne and knew how much fun they were so when I saw Jasmine post about this one back in November I had to jump in. I'm sure glad I did, too!

It's always amazing to bless someone by sending them a gift in the mail. I truly love that. I got paired up with Ashley from Carolina Lifestyle. She's a Southern girl just like me so I felt a connection and it was so much fun to shop for her. I wanted a cozy and christmasy theme for her. I hope she liked what I got her as much as I love what she got me! My gift from her came at the perfect time.

My husband and I had been at my best friend's mom's funeral earlier that day, when I got home my sweet little package was waiting on the front porch for me.

The Gingerbread cookies will be made today :)

And those straws y'all, they're the cutest little festive straws ever!

And the chalkboard is currently being used as my countdown to Christmas.

This sweet little package happened to be the blessing I needed on that day. So thank you, Ashley! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!











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Liebster Blog Award Nomination

Hi Peachies! I have some amazing news to share today. I've been nominated for a Liebster Blog Award!

What is a Liebster Blog Award? It is an award that is passed on from blogger to blogger to highlight them and their blog. It's like being in a beauty pagent, minus the Mean Girl cattyness. Plus everyone wins! Oh, and you can totally accept this award sitting on your couch, in sweats watching Love Actually. That's awesome, right? I totally think so. We live in a society where it seems that it's easier to tear each other down than it is to cheer them on so this speaks to my heart. I want to see everyone succeed and I want to cheer them on. I love this community of bloggers i've found in the last year because that's what it is, it's like having your own personal cheering squad in the game of life. I love all the love and feed back I get from my blogging tribe and from our blogging groups.

Here's the official explanation and rules of the Liebster Award as told by the lovely lady who nominated me Ally Fiesta. Be sure to go check out her blog, too because without her we wouldn't be reading this post.


WAIT, WHAT IS THE LIEBSTER AWARD?

The Liebster Award is an online award given to new bloggers by bloggers who’ve been on the scene for a while.
This award exists only on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers.
Variations have been made over time to the “rules”.
Bloggers are recognized by their peers and nominated to receive the award.
Part of that nomination is to nominate other bloggers with the same privilege.
The goal is to bring attention to blogs that haven’t been discovered yet.

WHAT ARE THE RULES?
Post the award to your blog to accept nomination.
Answer the questions you were given by the person who nominated you.
Nominate a small group of bloggers you have discovered.
Create 10 new questions for the nominees.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and link to their blog.

Here are the 10 questions Ally asked me and my answers.


MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU:

How did you decide to pick your blog name?
This one is easy! I actually posted about this back in September so i'm cheating by copying and pasting.

I'm a Georgia girl and everyone knows that peaches come from Georgia! I take pride in being from here. It's where generations of my family are from. It is and always will be home to me. There are parts of this town we live in named after my family and while it's a bigger town than it was when I was growing up it's still MY town. There's something about that heritage that is in my soul and makes me proud to be from here. I am a Georgia Peach!

It's also a throw back to one of my favorite movies ever, Grease! Remember Rizzo saying "Peachy Keen, jellybean"? Grease is one of the greatest movies ever. I'm always sucked in when it's on.

Southern State of Mind comes from the Darius Rucker song.
♫I could be anywhere
In my heart I'm always there
Where they drink sweet tea
And they raise you to be polite
No changin' who I am
That's the way I've always been
No matter what state I'm in
I'm in a southern state of mind♫

That pretty much sums me up because no matter where I am, i'm in a southern state of mind.

What are 5 words that describe your personal style?
Comfortable, feminine, flowy, light, layers.

Where is a place you’d like to travel but have never been before?
I would say Hawaii but I just got to go there on my honeymoon. I'll go back in a heartbeat though.
My answer for this is Puerto Rico. It's where my husband is from so i'd love to visit.

What inspired you to start blogging?
When I became a mom and wanted to share with family & friends, out of state, what was going on with us.
I blogged for about 4 years before making this what it is now.
I just started really getting involved in the blogging community about a year ago though and I love it.

Where would you encourage others to travel to?
I think this one is pretty obvious but i'll say it anyway.
Hawaii! I can't tell you enough good things about Hawaii.
The people are all super friendly, the island itself is so clean and fresh.
They recycle all plastic and don't even use plastic shopping bags!
And the smell of plumeria in the air is the sweetest smell ever.
We spent a week there and didn't get to do half of what we wanted to do but we'll be back someday.
I beg my hubby every day to move there & i'm a Georgia girl through and through.

What is your favorite quote?
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own common sense and reasoning." -Buddha

And one i've just kind of made up and adopted as my mantra is "Don't tell it, unless it's your story to tell." Meaning, don't tell everyone else's business. There are thing people close to me have gone through or confided in me and it's simply not my story to tell. That's how gossip gets started.

Another one that gets me through a lot of hard times is something my great-grandma used to tell my mama when my brothers and I were kids. She'd say "Everything is temporary. The bad is temporary, you can get through it but don't forget to relish in the good times because they are temporary, too." This is some advice my mama has since passed on to me in my adult life. I think it's pretty profound if you stop to think about it. I know we all want to believe that the bad times are temporary but we don't really think about how temporary the good times are. Cherish every single one.

Tell me about your most memorable travel experience?
Florida in September. You thought i'd say Hawaii, right?
That's second because without our trip to Florida in September we wouldn't have had our trip to Hawaii.
Florida in September standing on the sand is where I got to say I DO to my love, my life, my better half, my everything.
It's where I became Mrs. Soto.
It was the best day of my life, aside from when my son was born.
Family and friends traveled from Georgia and Illinois to stand with us as we became a family and that's the most memorable travel experience ever.

What was your first concert?
Oh, Ally! You had to ask this?!?
Okay, remember I'm a southern girl and in the 90's there were some pretty ridiculous country music acts out there.
My mom and my best friend (at the time's) Step Mom took us to the Toby Keith/Billy Ray Cyrus concert.
We went with other people, too but it's a blur. I don't know who. I've tried to block that from my memory.
The even worse part is that Toby Keith wasn't even the headliner. He was just coming on to the scene.
He was the opener.

That one really hurts, ya'll.

I should have had my husband answer that question. His answer is probably way cooler.

Do you remember the first time you danced?
With my husband, yes!
At A school dance? No. I was always so shy and quiet and dancing wasn't really my thing.
In my teenage years there were some clubs my girls and I went to.

How do you decide what you are going to blog about?
Some days I have a plan. I know exactly what I want to blog about.
Some days I have something on my heart that I want to talk about.
Other days i'll see someone else's blog post and think, that's a good idea!
Can I blog about that, too?

Here are the lovely ladies I've nominated for the Liebster Award.

Crystal Hall Around Texas
Kara The Knights Place
Lauren Peach State of Mind
Nell Simply Love
Jasmine CS&S Blog
Dara The Southern Thing
Laci Sequins in the South
Betsy Heavens to Betsy
Elena Baby Ridley Bump
Jessi JessisDesign

To accept your award, grab the Liebster Award logo at the top of this post and share it on your page.
Answer the 10 questions below.
Link back to the blog nominee who nominated you.
And nominate up to TEN more bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

1. What's your blog name? How did you choose it?
2. How would you handle negative comments on or in regards to your blog?
3. What does your ideal day look like?
4. What are 5 of your bucket list dreams?
5. What is your favorite recipe to cook/bake?
6. What makes you feel most confident?
7. What's your favorite blog post you've written? Why?
8. What's inspiring you right now?
9. What is your biggest blog accomplishment?
10. Share one thing on your wishlist you're really hoping to get for Christmas? 

Thank You all for joining in the fun. I hope you find some new blogs to follow and maybe even make a some new blogging friends.






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