AAAAHHHHHH...MY BEST FRIEND IS ENGAGED!!!

Last night a great friend of ours, Hunter, proposed to my very best friend in the whole world, Erin. She has not had too much time to talk, but from what I have gathered, He and his family came to Rockingham, where her and her whole family were for Christmas. Hunter rang the doorbell, and when Erin answered, he was on one knee.


I think this was such a sweet proposal, especially since both their families were able to be there together. Erin is from Columbus, Georgia, and Hunter's parents live outside of Dallas, so them all being in the same place for the engagement was so perfect and magical. And, then it snowed, which is even more of a magical memory for the two of them.

Erin and Hunter are so blessed to have one another. Hunter is such a wonderful man of God, and Erin has the most wonderful heart and spirit. They are so important to Will and me, and we look forward to so many years of memories and just having good times with friends. I am just so happy, I could burst, and I am about dying to see Erin, so hopefully that will work out before I have to go back to school.

Hunter and Erin really are mature, but I will leave you with this picture of them...

Holiday Happenings

When I finished up with my last exam (Saturday Dec. 11) I came home to do what everyone would want to do after a straight month of studying; I bleached and deep cleaned our entire apartment! Ya'll do not know how much I love bleaching and deep cleaning. In fact, I hate to clean unless I have the time to really, really clean. Will and I had such a good day while we cleaned and listened to Christmas music.

While cleaning, I had to throw away the flowers Will had gotten me before exams started. They had finally died, but I just hate throwing away flowers. But, then I got a great surprise. I got a beautiful, fresh flower delivery! These were from my Dad for being done with exams. They were absolutely stunning flowers! I was glad to see that they were from a florist down the street from us, Bella Bouquet. I saw it, on Rivers Avenue, last fall after it had opened and stopped in to pick up some flowers from there. I was glad to see that they were doing well by getting these flowers from them, because the people in the shop seemed so nice!

Here are the flowers after I first got them...

...and here they are after a few days, once they opened up a little bit more. Aren't they beautiful?

So, needless to say, with a clean apartment and fresh flowers, it was a great start to my Christmas break!

We did recently find out exciting news...Will does not have a mandatory transfer in May. He will actually stay stationed in St. Matthews until he applies for a transfer, which means that we can stay living near Charleston until I am done with school next year.

Will and I have been in Lexington since Sunday, and even though he still had to work through Wednesday, it is actually shorter for him to drive to work from Lexington! We have had a great time just relaxing and spending time with our families. Thanks for letting me catch you up, and HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I love the Christmas season, I mean who doesn't? These are a few of my favorite things...

1. Christmas Music
   
2. Wrapping Paper and Bows
3. My Church That Lights Up and Plays Music
4. Nativity Scenes
5. Christmas Eve Service at Church
6. Being on a Break from School (at least for one more year)
7. Picking out Toys for Kids on the Angel Tree
8. My Precious Golden in his Christmas Handkerchief
   
9. The Polar Express &
   
10. Just Relaxing with William and our Families
    

Will and I decided to try and not buy any new Christmas decorations this year since we really do not have anywhere to store them, and it will just be more to move in a few months, but I could help myself with making a new centerpiece that looked good with our Christmas China.
We are trying to accumulate the Lenox Holiday Platinum Christmas China. We love the simplicity of it, but the main reason was because our fine china is Lenox Platinum with accent plates. So, for now all we did was replace four of our accent plates with Christmas salad plates, and we had Christmas china out!

These are our stockings. I cannot wait until we have a mantle to put these on, but for now, the tv stand works pretty good!

A couple of years ago my grandparents got Will and I this beautiful nativity scene. We are hoping to add more pieces to it through the years.

Will and I were very lucky with a tree last year. We picked out a tree and it lasted and turned out perfect. Well this year we were even more lucky. Will's brother Chris was selling Christmas trees as fundraisers for Churches and other organizations. You pre-order these trees, for the same price as from Wal-Mart or Lowes, but they are cut on Wednesday and then you have them by Friday. So, they are so fresh and turned out absolutely beautiful!

Will and I do not have too many Christmas tree ornaments, so we know over the years we need to build up a bigger collection, especially some more colorful ornaments.

We got a new tree topper Angel this year, and I love that she lights up!

Overall, Will and I had a blast decorating for Christmas. We are so excited about all of our fun holiday plans, and most of all, our time we will spend relaxing with those we love. As Will was reminding us the other day, while there was a bit of stress about some holiday plans, Christmas is a season not a day! (His mom and I just sort of looked at him for this profound statement and started laughing, but we realized he was exactly right!)

I hope that everyone is having a great Holiday season, and I hope that we can all remember the beautiful gift that was given to us with Jesus' birth. Merry Christmas!