Some of our favorite ornaments

As Mark and I have slowly built our life together, we've collected a few ornaments along the way. From the tiny airplane with moving propeller that he gave me when I flew to FL with them our first Christmas while engaged, to the glittering silver droplets my mom gave us for our first tree married, to our new ornament commemorating Dane's first year with us, they represent many great moments in our lives. Even on nights that Mark's away, I love sitting in our living room with the tree shining in the corner and just feeling warm knowing how lucky we are. It's been so lovely to be reassured over and over this year that God brought Mark and I together for a reason; we hope to have many more trees together and continue to add ornaments representing all the times we will cherish with each other. What ornaments mean the most to you?

My alma mater makes me proud

Holiday deals

Mark and I have always loved a good bargain, and we hit the jackpot again this weekend with a trip to the Crate and Barrel outlet. We had both sides of the family over for Thanksgiving this year and with our first real dining table, it was time to find some things to dress it. When we got there, we made a beeline for the clearance shelves and bins in the back. I had been looking for a great tablecloth, but the ones not on clearance were still over $60 bucks, so we decided to pass that up. While sifting through the bedding bins, I found a beautiful king-size duvet cover. It ended up being the perfect table cloth, and for only 24 dollars, we had a much more elegant table. We used some old drawer pulls we'd rescued from a defunct dresser for placards, a candelabra and candles left over from our wedding. Finally, I bought real napkins from Target and a bracelet from Kohls that we made eight napkin rings from. All in all, we had a great time making our own non-traditional, traditional-looking Thanksgiving table. At C&B, we also found a bin of ornaments for .95 each. Every one was different and beautiful. To unify them, I stuck to a palette of silver. We'll make use of these soon, as Christmas is quickly approaching!