Christmas: Musselwhite style

because every family (I'm sure) has their wild and fun traditions, I thought I would share a couple of ours:

Christmas eve eve cookie baking: snickerdoodles + double-chocolate sugar cookies (my personal favorite). Maybe one year I'll relinquish the recipe for these heavenly treats, but, honestly speaking, I'm just not ready for that yet.

hiding + finding the Christmas pickle ornament - it's supposedly an old German tradition, and the winner of the competition gets a little extra cash. I've been the Christmas pickle champion for the past two years in a row, but, unfortunately, my brother found it this year. In 363 days... it's on. again.

on Christmas eve, we get together for dinner with my mom's side of the family, then we go home, watch White Christmas, and hang our stockings on our bedroom doors for Santa (I think we hang them on our doors and not our fireplace because when we first moved to Bham, we lived in an apartment for a year and didn't have a fireplace to hang them on. Once we moved into an actual house, we kept the tradition). On Christmas day, we make Belgian waffles for breakfast and open presents, go to a movie together, and eat Christmas dinner together.

we're definitely a tradition-driven family, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

p.s. yes, I got a steamer for Christmas, and yes, I'm pretty freaking excited about it. I'M AN ADULT.

things I did around/during Thanksgiving break:

the wednesday before the break, we celebrated my friend Hillary's 21st! she is the first of my close Auburn friends to turn 21, and she was gracious/crazy/risky enough to let me try some of her Hurricane. what a champ. our waiter definitely made some interesting comments about what he assumed was going to go down later that night... we didn't have the heart to tell him we were going to church right after dinner. ha.

And then came the break, and my annual trip to Jackson, TN to visit my lovely best friend who goes to Union University. if I could share but a fraction of the creative genius that comes from this friend and all of her fellow art major friends, this blog would explode with incredibleness. Sadly, I only have six pictures from the trip, so maybe next year you lovely blog readers will have more to awe over... but until then, I leave you with one of their funny refrigerator sentences, and a glimpse of their neighbor's christmas decor.

The weekend I visit every year happens to be the weekend they have their big Christmas party. paper snowflakes are cut out, hot chocolate is made, and a plethora of Christmas cookies crowd the table. It's so wonderful, I can't even stand it. The weekend was also jam packed with local eateries, the discovery of Andrew Peterson, and a little bit of wedding planning :)

So once I arrived home in Birmingham, I worked my high school retail job for a day (Christmas shoppers are psychotic), helped decorate my parent's house for Christmas, and spent Thanksgiving Day at my grandparent's house. I can't even describe how much I love spending Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family. There is only one year that I can remember not doing it, and it almost didn't happen this year - we almost went to Georgia to spend the weekend with my Dad's side. I would be lying if I said I didn't cry when I heard that piece of news. I know, major immaturity points for Jana. But I am so stubborn and set on tradition and have no clue what I am going to do when I get married and have to choose which families to spend holidays with.

so that was Thanksgiving break.

another summer holiday

my 4th of July celebration included:

hamburgers

hot dogs

blackberry cobbler

grandparents

friends

sparklers

roman candles

my 35mm camera

and... wait for it... Baby Mama. Because what's more patriotic than the American comedy duo of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler?

I don't really have an extreme love for/attachment to this holiday... no traditions or special plans. But I was so glad to spend it with my lovely friends, eating, laughing and taking pictures.

perfect summer kickoff weekend, check.

I've come to expect really great things from Memorial Day weekend. Last year it was spent in Auburn. This year I was in Birmingham, celebrating the marriage of an old Bible study leader and the engagement of a best friend. That's right, I hosted an engagement party. I felt like such an adult, and even though it was very last minute and I didn't have time to do half the things I wish I could have, it was still a fun, sweet celebration with Katherine and Mike's closest friends. If they felt only half as blessed as I did by the company that surrounded them, then I think it was a job well done.

The wedding was also so much fun. Caitlin and Jeffrey have such a Christ centered, God glorifying relationship, and it was a blessing to celebrate their marriage with them. It was a night of fellowship, incredible food, and dancing until our feet hurt.

What a completely marvelous Memorial Day weekend. Summer, you may begin.

valentine greetings

I made these a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to wait until everyone had received theirs before posting pictures. They are a couple of the homemade valentines I sent this year, made with blank cards, scrapbook paper and sharpie pens. So incredibly easy. I think I've decided to make my own cards from now on. This was I can say what I want to say, and not have to mess with the terrible commercialism that is Hallmark. Hooray for creativity! Hooray for being able to make and send cards that have exactly what you want on them!