Happy Valentine's Day...and a wedding.

Happy Valentine's Day or S.A.D (singles awareness day)!

Here's a few facts you might not have known:

♡ In A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius I declared Feb. 14 as Valentine’s Day.
♡ Esther Howland, a native of Massachusetts, is given credit for selling the first mass-produced valentine cards in the 1840s.
♡ Approximately 141 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most-popular card-sending holiday after Christmas.
♡ More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold.
♡ In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Australia, Denmark and Italy.

Valentine's Day may have evolved from a story about St.  Valentine, a cleric during the Roman Empire.
According to the legend, during the reign of  Claudius II in A.D. 270, Valentine performed numerous secret wedding ceremonies against the emperor’s orders. When his actions were discovered, Valentine was sentenced to death on Feb. 14. While in jail he wrote a love note to the jailer’s daughter, signing it, “From your Valentine.”


Now on to a beautiful wedding by Daniel C Photography. Congrats Lacey and Lee, your wedding was beautiful.

Gosh, don't you just love weddings?

The Holiday's are Coming to Town!

It's never too early to get in to the Christmas spirit. Growing up every year on the day after Thanksgiving we would pull out all our Christmas decorations, including a great 7.5 foot tree, and start setting them up while listening to Christmas music and eating leftovers.

I loved it and those are memories I will never forget. This year it's just my husband and I in our little apartment. We plan on a few decorations, but we really don't have the room or storage! Even though we don't have a big 7.5 foot tree or any of those decorations and things we enjoyed growing up, that's not going to stop us from having a great little Christmas party with our friends!

Whether you are like my parents or like me and my husband, anyone can throw a great looking and easy Christmas party. I love to cook, so one of the first things I do when planning any type of party is figure out what I would like to serve. Many times I do a pot luck type of party and have everyone bring something. That way everyone has something they like.

Edible Ornaments

Fun desserts and different drinks rather than just the regular sodas and water are also something fun to have. Try making a Christmas tree out of cupcakes or even cute little edible ornaments. If you don't feel like baking and decorating try The Cupcake Bar. They are exactly what their name says, a full service bar for cupcakes. They have 75 toppings, 20 flavors, and a spread of different fillings. You just walk up to the bar and tell them what type of cupcake you want, what you want on it and what you want in it. Sounds fun and delicious to me!

There are tons of drinks you can make for the holiday's that aren't just your regular eggnog. Try a few non-alcoholic drinks such as a S'more Mocktail with marshmallow cream topping and graham crackers or a Cranberry-Mint cooler with a frozen holiday wreath made from a shot glass mold with mint and cranberries . If you can't do with out the eggnog, try this new version with a cookie ornament garnish.

Ornament wreath

Decorations are next on the list of party planning, but are pretty easy around the holidays with the abundance of Christmas trees, snowmen, nutcrackers, and lights. If you want something easy, fun and inexpensive, you can make an ornament wreath. It's as easy as taking an old wire hanger and forming it info a wreath shape and adding ornaments of your choosing.

There are tons of other ideas and inspiration you can find, so these are just a few of my favorite things. At this time of year don't forget all the special people in your life and everything you have to be thankful for, including all the little things most people take for granted, such as their health, mobility, job, family, money, friends, and whether you are married, getting married our just engaged this holiday season, you are blessed to have found someone to love you and take care of you for the rest of your life.

New beginnings...big changes.

As a newlywed myself, I have been through the entire wedding process from engagement to honeymoon. It's all wonderful in a fun, crazy, stressful kind of way. But, now that it's over, what do you do now?

Well, I started down the traditional route of changing my last name. It's quite a long process, and a little frustrating.
     1) First things first...take your marriage license with you everywhere when you begin this process.
     2) Get a new Social Security card. You need this first to be able to change most other things. Get to the Social Security office as early as possible. In fact, be waiting in the parking lot when they unlock the doors so you don't have to wait in an entirely too small office for half of the day.
     3) Update your drivers license. Same as the Social Security office...arrive as early as possible. You will need to fill out a form and have your marriage license with you.
     4) Update your name on all utilities, bank accounts, credit cards, insurance policies, etc. Most of these just require a phone call and some you can even change online. Make sure to request new checks, credit cards, proof of insurance with your new name.
     5) Don't forget to update your Facebook relationship status and change your name!

What are you doing to adjust to married life? Any struggles or successes?