It sure is Christmas around here!!!

Since our last (substantial) post, we spent Thanksgiving in Indiucky, started celebrating the advent season, helped little Knox celebrate his 1^st birthday, began the first tradition in OUR family, had Christmas in Dixie, and one more in Chattaboogie. Amidst all of this, we managed to complete our Christmas shopping 3 days before Christmas (other than actually MAKING the homemade gifts)! WHEW!! Can you see why we haven’t blogged in a while?

Right after chopping all of my hair off, we went to Indiucky for Thanksgiving. We left Tuesday for my (Jill’s) mom’s in Burlington, KY (just outside Cincinnati). We had Thanksgiving dinner with Mom and several friends in town on Wednesday night. Thursday morning we drove to New Albany, IN (across the river from Louisville) to the Needham Thanksgiving celebration. I was asked to bring the PECAN PIE to Thanksgiving, which I thought was a pretty big deal. My friend Christie supplied me with her family’s recipe since I had never made one, which was a hit. Friday morning was breakfast at the Needhams’, to which I contributed MY family’s famous and always loved chocolate chip pancakes. We spent the rest of the weekend at Matt’s dad’s house. I promptly misplaced my camera on Wednesday afternoon, so there are no pics from Thanksgiving. I did find it once we were home.

I decided that I wanted to have an Advent wreath this year because we started doing the nightly readings of the Upper Room Advent devotional guide last year. Matt agreed. So we went to our church’s Advent wreath making event and assembled a beautiful wreath of live greenery and candles. We’ve enjoyed taking time each evening (but a few misses) to read the short devotional and scripture to prepare for the coming of Christ on Christmas Day. See our pretty wreath?

I traveled to Atlanta the first Saturday in December to celebrate Knox Rogers' birthday! It was a great party. Of course Ashley made all the decorations, favors and food. It was absolutely adorable!!! Everything was puppy dog themed. Here are a few pictures from my camera of sweet Knox's big celebration. To see Ashley's pics, click here.

The first tradition of OUR family, we decided last year, would be to decorate our tree every year on December 6^th, the anniversary of our engagement. We thought it would be a special way to remember the beginning of our family when Matt proposed while decorating our tree, as well as a wonderful way to start Christmas at our house (since it is near the start of Advent as well). There is also a pic of our Christmas card clothes line in the dining room. I love it!!!

The Trousdale family gets together every year in early December, so that we can celebrate with each other and not feel rushed or torn around the actual day of Christmas. This year, Aunt Pam hosted in Muscle Shoals. Whenever we go to Muscle Shoals, we try and see one of my oldest and dearest friends, Betsy. Betsy and Bradley are expecting their first baby, Rubye Kate, in early April!! See!!

Here are a few pics of the Trousdale Christmas. I was really bad with pictures this year!

This past weekend (the weekend before Christmas), Mom came down from Kentucky, and Brenda (my godmother) came up from Birmingham to celebrate Christmas with Matt and me. They were our first overnight house guests since we got married! We had a wonderful time talking and laughing, exchanging gifts, eating, and watching Christmas movies together. We really enjoyed being able to enjoy this season with them!!

I suspect there will be no posts until after we celebrate Christ's birth, so the Blacks are wishing you the Merriest Christmas!! May you be truly blessed and safe this Christmas, and remember the reason we celebrate is the gift of our Lord!!

They made friends

So I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I blogged, but I wanted to give you a quick update. I will post more about Advent and family get-togethers soon. But for now, I just want to let everyone know that Isis and Hurley love each other. I truly believe that Isis thinks that Hurley is HER DOG. Just watch...

The funny part about this video is that Isis had been bathing Hurley for about 2 minutes before I got my phone to video setting. By that time she had stopped. I said, "Isis give your sister some more love so Mommy can take a video." And this is what I got!! Animals are hilarious.

I DID IT!!!!

Well, I did it!! I began growing my hair out over 2 years ago with the intention of donating it. Matt made it interesting by saying, "I've heard girls say that before. No one ever makes it." Ah-Ha, a challenge!! It got longer and longer, and I was just about ready to donate it, when Matt proposed!! I have had short hair only 2 other times in my life, so I didn't want short hair for my wedding. It wouldn't look like "me". So I waited. Which means that I've had really long hair for nearly 2 years!! AAAHHHH!! I was ready to cut it! So I decided to go ahead and donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, and while I was at it let's try being a redhead!! Here are the pictures!

this is Sharissa getting my hair ready

going...


going...

GONE!!!

my new do as a redhead!

I'm donating 9 inches to Pantene Beautiful Lengths!!!


Watch out world!! There's another sassy redhead on the loose!

If you are wondering why I chose Pantene Beautiful Lengths instead of Locks of Love, I will let you know. Locks of Love is more well known, so they receive many more donations. They are underfunded and understaffed, and cannot afford to process and pay for wigs to be made for all of the donations they receive. Pantene is a large company with plenty of money to use their donations. Locks of Love is a wonderful organization making wigs for children that suffer from alopecia, but I didn't want to contribute to their backlog. Plus, Pantene Beautiful Lengths will make a wig for anyone who has lost their hair from cancer treatments, regardless of age.

Watch it

We are two people who are so blessed to be able to share and celebrate this joyful time in our lives. This especially resonates with us...