Pre-Christmas Five on Friday

Happy Friday, friends!  Is everyone all shopped and wrapped for Christmas?  I have the "shop" part down, but this weekend will be all about the wrapping.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?  Oh well, it'll be a fun Saturday of quoting every Christmas movie and cutting wrapping paper unevenly.  Before the weekend, I thought it'd be fun to share all the good things we've been up to:

1. Kickball: Last weekend, one of my closest friends hosted a kickball tournament to benefit Toys for Tots.  She gathered together 8 teams and everyone got points for runs scored, wins, but also donated dollars and toys.  Altogether, 1500 toys were collected and nearly $4000!  Great job, Stafford!

2. Star Wars: Who else has seen The Last Jedi?  We were surprised that we could get opening weekend Friday tickets with no problem the night before, and I really liked the movie.  Personally, I liked The Force Awakens better, but the combination of action, that dry Star Wars humor, new characters (porgs and crystal critters!!), and old favorites was very good!

3. Early Christmas: Each year, Mike and I do our own Christmas to each other early so that we don't have to bring our presents all the way up to New England and back.  He bought me the best gift, a new camera!  For the last 7 years, I've been using a Canon T1i with a lens from my old film Rebel from the early 2000s.  He chose a Canon 80D, and I could not be more excited!  I'm working on figuring out all the fun new features right now.  Any photographers have any suggestions for me?

4. Christmas lights: Remember our outdoor lights that I was so proud of on Wednesday?  Wellllll, we won our neighborhood lights contest!!

5. Christmas cookies: Last night, we were at our neighbors' house for a cookie swap.  They made these amazing chicken enchiladas, and a bunch of us from our street traded cookies.  I made frosted sugar cookies, mint chocolate chip cookies, and toffee... and I just realized that I don't have any of those recipes on this blog.  I need to change that!

I hope everyone enjoys the last weekend before Christmas!

Christmas Around Our House

Every year, I love sharing our Christmas Card on my blog.  By now, I think our mailed cards have reached family in Maine and San Diego, so it's fair game to share.  Here are links to past cards: living with our friends in our "frat house" in 2012, engaged in 2013, married in 2014, our first Charleston Christmas in 2015, and our card/moving announcement in 2016.  We kept it simple this year so that we'd have room to write messages to friends and family we haven't seen in a while and used one of the photos from our shoot with Ashleigh this fall.

Now for our home: like last year, we went all out for our exterior.  Ever since we lived in Connecticut and inherited decorations from our roommate's family, it's been our favorite part of decorating.  The best change for this year that Mike came up with and i executed is our golf hole for the moose.  Even our golf cart got in the festive spirit.

Not going to lie, the one thing that suffered with all the time spent exterior decorating was our tree.  We got one in November (nice and early!) and immediately put lights on it... aaaand that's it.  To be 100% honest, I absolutely love the way Christmas trees look with just lights, so it doesn't bother me one bit!   Mike even rigged it up so we can ask Alexa to turn the tree on and off.  I'm also in love with our wrapping paper from Minted this year - here's the link.  How cute are these Charleston doors?!

What do you spend more time decorating: the inside or outside of your home?

Charleston Christmas Stroll

Happy Monday!  We are in the final countdown; only one week until Christmas.  While next weekend will definitely be consumed with last-minute shopping, cooking, baking, and gift-wrapping, this one weekend was the perfect, relaxing one to go for a walk around the city.  Seriously, Charleston at Christmastime cannot be beat.  Lamp posts, window boxes, and doors are dressed up all over the city, but my favorite spot to stroll around and look at decorations is South of Broad Street.  The whole area is residential, and the homes are all historical and beautiful.  I could have taken (and almost did take) photos of every home on my walk, but I narrowed it down to my favorites.  I love all the magnolia leaf, palmetto rose, and eucalyptus in the #wreathsofcharleston (also, can we just talk about how cool it is to follow a hashtag on Instagram now?!).

Also, quick PSA - today is the last day to enter my Starbucks giveaway on Instagram - click here to check it out!

If you want to take your own Christmas in Charleston adventure, I suggest that you park on East Battery, along the seawall, and start on Atlantic Street.  Use Church Street to see the most perfect brick street and historic courtyard, and cut back to Water Street.  Take Price's Alley over to King Street, and walk all the way back east on Tradd Street.  Don't forget to take a few steps north on East Bay after you see 0 Tradd Street to check out the famous Rainbow Row!  I love the old map of Charleston below and that the streets haven't changed in 150 years, so I outlined my favorite adventure in pink!

Tell me about Christmas in your city! Where's the one place you have to stop each year?

Linking up with Biana for "Weekending!"