Things Loved in December

1.  Remember when (back when I watched TV...and had free time) I used to put my 2 cents in about what the stars wore to award shows like the Golden Globes and Oscars?  Well that's when I first confessed that I was becoming an Anne Hathaway lover.  After seeing her in the movie "Love & Other Drugs" (or as my coworker Erin more accurately dubbed it:  "Sex & Other Drugs") you can consider me a card carrying member of the I'm Obsessed with Anne Hathaway Fan Club.  I thought the movie was good, but I thought Anne Hathaway was phenomenal!  I loved her performance.  I love her.  And I want her hair for Christmas. 

2.  My new camera!  I am super-duper excited (and I never say "super-duper" so that's got to tell you something) to be the proud owner of my first dSLR camera!  I've been wanting one for...oh, forever...and after Kate was born decided that this "want" was quickly edging over into the "need" column.  I saved up all year and now she's mine.  I chose the Canon EOS Rebel T2i and I love it!  But don't be expecting stellar pictures from me quite yet.  As I discovered over Christmas, I have quite a lot of learning and practice to do! 

3.  I know I wrote about this last year, but it bears repeating--I just love getting holiday cards in the mail!  It is so much fun to receive greetings from family and friends throughout the month.  Even Kate enjoyed it this year!  She insisted on personally inspecting each card that came in the mail and liked the photo cards best--especially the ones with other children on them.  One of the photo cards we received even had their dog in their family picture and that was by far her favorite--thanks Mel!

These are plantable cards made out of seed paper from Botanical Paperworks.  How neat is that?

4.  I've always been a sucker for mint and chocolate flavor combos, and I got sucked back into that addiction this holiday season when my "Secret Santa" at work gave me a delicious plate of peppermint chocolate bark...which lasted about 30 seconds before it was digesting in my belly.  Mmmm...so good!

Photo Credit:  Annmarie Kostyk, the "Chocolate Goddess." 
Check our her site for this easy-to-make recipe!

5.  Christmas tree ornaments.  While decorating our Christmas tree this year, I was struck by how many ornaments I have that were gifts from loved ones.  Little silver ornaments in the shapes of a martini shaker and cocktail glasses from my friend Allison, mercury glass ornaments strung with matching ribbons from my friend Lisa, a mailbox ornament that G gave me the year we bought our first house, another with "Thank You" written all over it which he gave me the year I said 'yes' to his marriage proposal, and most recently from G--a tiny snowglobe snowman with "Katherine" written across the bottom, given to me last Christmas when I was 9 months pregnant with Kate (looking rather snowman-like myself) and eagerly anticipating her arrival.  Unwrapping each of these little treasures and reflecting on the thought and care that was put into selecting them for me nearly brought me to tears.  I'm not quite sure how it happened, but my Christmas tree ornaments went from a carefully selected, perfectly color-coordinated (yet meaningless) collection, to something mismatched, hodgepodged, and nothing short of magical that I get to enjoy at this most magical time of year.