Decorating For Christmas 2008

~ Hello Everyone ~

Jason and I decided to decorate for Christmas over the weekend! Luckily the weather cooperated and it snowed ALL DAY! What could make the day better and the home more cozy? Anyway - both of us were decorating, however Jason seemed to "Man" the camera so Diablo and I are in a lot of the pictures :) Of course, when you're as stunning as he is, you can't help but be photographed constantly :) PS - did I mention it was BARELY 20 degrees? FREEZING this winter!

This is us at the tree lot, picking the perfect tree. They are SOO cheap up here - only $30, regardless of the size!

Diablo and I putting the star on the top of the tree before hanging those DREADED lights!

And...said dreaded lights...

After the lights, we decided to dance in the snow - here are some pictures of Diablo freezing his tail off in the snow!

This is me decorating the banister upstairs!

And...Diablo, Josephine, Jason, and I with the finished tree!

Jason and I LOVE Christmas and have decided to collect ornaments from everywhere we travel. This is the completed tree and some of our favorites! We just got the sheep and the gator ornaments from Brooke - Thanks Brooke - LOVE them!

After a full day of decorating...Diablo was EXHAUSTED!

Thanksgiving in Florida

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones! Jason and I decided to head down to Florida this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. They will be headed up here to the snow for Christmas! Here are some pictures from our trip, which was WONDERFUL and relaxing!

This is my parents' newest kitty, Freckles! Named after Kate from my favorite show, Lost :)

On Thanksgiving Day we headed over to my Aunt Sue and Uncle Dave's house. Here I am cooking the sausage for Dave's famous stuffing!

And...helping Suzie with desert!

Jason and I with an awesome anniversary gift from Suz and Dave!

This is Andrew Zimmern - Uh - I mean Dave, looking like Andrew Zimmern, from Bazare Foods on the Travel Channel (one of my obsessions) - eating the turkey heart - YUCK!

Jason, proving that you can, indeed, eat healthy on Thanksgiving...with fruit!

Dad and I (in the middle) with Jim and Cassie (Suz's sister) :)

All of us (minus Jason and Dave) before dinner!

Mom, Suz, Cassie, and me :)


Our signature pose :)

Me and my beautiful mom

And my beautiful Aunt Suz

My family

After dinner, relaxing on the couch!

Shopping at Bass Pro Shop the next day!

Me with the kitties who are enjoying their Christmas present, a little early. We got them a big bed for the study, so they can lay together while I work! Come on now, you KNEW I had to throw in a picture of the kitties SOMEWHERE!

I hope you enjoyed! Have a great week everyone!

Wonderful Friends

I wanted to share with you all what wonderful friends Jason and I have. Some of you remember my friends, Dee and George, also know as "The Galamade's," from my days waiting tables at Ballyhoo while I was living in Gainesville, attending UF. For those of you who don't know the story, Dee and George were my regular customers - every Friday night for a couple of months before becoming two very close friends! We became closer and closer and I can't tell you how much I looked forward to their weekly "visits" to Ballyhoo each Friday before they went to the movies! Pretty soon I was out boating with Dee and George and their children and grandchildren... drinking sangria, and riding jet skis all day! They are two of the most genuinely wonderful people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Well, I told you all that to tell you this...tonight, Jason and I received a package at our door, after a very rough and trying week. When we opened it, it was, to our surprise, a present for our very first anniversary (coming up on 11/17). But it was not just any ordinary present - they had made us a wooden plaque wherein they placed our wedding invitation as well as our favors and a little Irish blessing that we placed at each guest's place setting. I have to tell you all, it blew us away! What a thoughtful and wonderful gift. Once again. If you don't already have wonderful friends in your life, I pray that you will each come to know wonderful people like Dee and George. Jason and I are so thankful for all of our wonderful friends and family. Remember. We are always taught to love and respect our family, but remember...Family is not only those who share your blood, but also those who share your heart.

Thanks Dee and George. You made our week.

Love,
Jason & Kellee

Home Improvements

Jason and I have been making some home improvements over the last month. We recarpeted all three of our bedrooms. The carpet was SHOT and nasty - now it's plush and BEAUTIFUL! For all you Floridians who are wondering why in the heck we would EVER want carpeting in bedrooms...spend a winter up here, my friends...then tell me what type of flooring you would put in your bedrooms :) We also tiled the hallway by our bathroom and replaced the bathroom vanity in the downstairs bathroom. Last but not least, we bought a new dining room table (WOO HOO), moved my desk into the study to be next to Jason's desk, and bought a new recliner! How excited are we!?!

Here are some before pictures of the hallway and bathroom. (Notice the kitties in a lot of the pictures)

And the afters! WOO HOO!


This is our "combined" study now - which is AWESOME because both of us frequently work from home - now we can work together! I couldn't get half of the room in but you can see where we put my desk (Jason's is to the left) also see the new carpet :)

Another view of the study (Jason's desk)

Our bedroom with the new carpeting - my FAVORITE!

Last but not least...our new recliner! It's in the place where my desk used to be in the living room. It matches our living room furniture! And as you can see, the kitties have already claimed it - no, we did not put them there :)
Here you can see the new recliner on the far right - of course Jo is in it :) and the other half of the living room!

One more of the cute little kitties....And...our new dining room table!!! It's huge and it was very difficult to get pictures of and the pictures don't do it justice. It's solid Hickory and EXTREMELY heavy. We wanted it to be rustic, like our house, and when we saw it, we knew it was the PERFECT table! Gotta love being so close to all the furniture stores up here and getting the good stuff so easily!