Wishing you and your family a very, Merry Christmas!
And CHEERS to exciting adventures ahead in 2017!
Love, Anna & Houston
Love, Anna & Houston
Christmas Cookie Exchange
This year, I hosted my second annual Christmas Cookie Exchange.
For 25 years, my mom hosted her own cookie exchange for friends and she has passed the tradition along to me!
My mom and sister Betsy flew up from Orlando to come to the party which was so special to me to have them here with me.
I used Postable to mail out invitations for the party making it super easy!
(Also used Postable to send our Christmas cards this year)
I asked friends to bring 3 dozen cookies to share. I made homemade Nutmeg Cookie Logs which are a family staple for us at Christmas. They certainly take some time to make but are SO worth it!
It was also helpful to have ladies bring some food to help me, which was a lesson I learned last time.
I had some Christmas music playing in the background from a Spotify playlist I created. When ladies arrived, I had them sign the guestbook (I'm hoping to keep the guest list going each year), then we mingled in the kitchen for a while. My sister helped me make
a simple and delicious Champagne cocktail which I shared the recipe on the blog last week.
Then we took our food and sat in the living room while I read the Christmas story out of the Bible in Luke Chapter 2. I enjoy getting to read it at the Cookie Exchange with friends, I rarely get to hear it myself except during church on Christmas Eve so I loved sharing it.
Here are a few pictures from our fun night together!
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| So special to have my mom and sister Betsy fly up from Orlando just for the Cookie Exchange |
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| Champagne cocktail recipe here |
I love hosting and enjoyed having such special friends over!!
xox, A
The Easiest Way to Mail Christmas Cards
One thing I love - and certainly got from my amazing mother - is the love of Christmas cards!
But as a working young professional, I don't always have the time to address and mail them myself.
That's why I love Postable.com.
This company makes it super easy to collect addresses from your friends and family to create your own address book, then you can use their website to send all kinds of cards (not just Christmas cards) like birthday, anniversary, thank you notes, invitations, the list goes on and on.
So for the past two years, I've uploaded a picture of Houston and I and picked out a Christmas card design I liked. Then selected who to send cards to from my address book and the best part...
they address and mail them for you!!!!!
Seriously, I wish I came up with this idea. Jump on over to Postable.com and check out their cute Christmas cards to choose from!
Here are our Christmas cards from the past 2 years that we ordered from Postable.com:
2014 Christmas Card
2015 Christmas Card
Trying to decide which adorable card to use this year from their Christmas card designs!
xox, A
PS - This is not a sponsored post, but Postable.com if you want to pay me I would happily accept 😉
I love to tell others about your company!
After Christmas Shopping
So it's been way too long since I've blogged but thought I'd let you know of some great after Christmas sales going on!
eBates
First of all, my friend from work introduced me to eBates.com, which if you haven't heard of it, it's GENIUS for all of your online shopping (not even for after Christmas, but for everything!)! Basically you set up an account, login and then search for whatever website you were planning to buy from. Some of my favorites include: J.Crew, Amazon.com, Groupon, Nordstrom, GAP, Macy's, and countless others and eBates will redirect you to that website, then when you make a purchase you get a percentage of cash back of what you spend! The website also lets you know of promotions and sales going on. J.Crew gives you 4% cash back, Amazon is up to 4%, Jos. A. Bank is 10% back, Tory Burch gives you 4% cash back and it's money you were already planning on spending!
Then they send you a check quarterly or they can pay you directly into a PayPal account, which is what I decided to do. You can also search for specific items directly from eBates, such as "women's jeans" and see who gives you the best cash back options! Also, when you sign up they'll send you a $10 gift card, I asked for one from Target and I just got it in the mail this week! Ca-ching! A few other great sales going on are listed below.
J.Crew
J.Crew is having 40% off through January 7 with code STYLE2014.
Amazon
Amazon is having lots of sales through December 31.
Sephora
Sephora is giving 8% cash back through eBates.
Loft
Loft has 50% off everything, ends tonight!
Those are just a few of my favorites! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family! Here's our first, married Christmas card (made and mailed from Postable)!
Merry Christmas!
Anna
eBates
First of all, my friend from work introduced me to eBates.com, which if you haven't heard of it, it's GENIUS for all of your online shopping (not even for after Christmas, but for everything!)! Basically you set up an account, login and then search for whatever website you were planning to buy from. Some of my favorites include: J.Crew, Amazon.com, Groupon, Nordstrom, GAP, Macy's, and countless others and eBates will redirect you to that website, then when you make a purchase you get a percentage of cash back of what you spend! The website also lets you know of promotions and sales going on. J.Crew gives you 4% cash back, Amazon is up to 4%, Jos. A. Bank is 10% back, Tory Burch gives you 4% cash back and it's money you were already planning on spending!
Then they send you a check quarterly or they can pay you directly into a PayPal account, which is what I decided to do. You can also search for specific items directly from eBates, such as "women's jeans" and see who gives you the best cash back options! Also, when you sign up they'll send you a $10 gift card, I asked for one from Target and I just got it in the mail this week! Ca-ching! A few other great sales going on are listed below.
J.Crew
J.Crew is having 40% off through January 7 with code STYLE2014.
Amazon
Amazon is having lots of sales through December 31.
Sephora
Sephora is giving 8% cash back through eBates.
Loft
Loft has 50% off everything, ends tonight!
Those are just a few of my favorites! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family! Here's our first, married Christmas card (made and mailed from Postable)!
Merry Christmas!
Anna
Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Valentine's Day means a lot of different things to different people - some people like to call it Single Awareness Day, some people in relationships don't even like the holiday, and others like myself are hopeless romantics and love holidays in general so single or taken I've always loved this day! (But I've gotta admit, having the most wonderful guy as your Valentine has made these past three so wonderful and I look forward to many more together!)
From growing up, Mom used to dye all our breakfast food pink! (I will totally do this as a wife and mom one day!) Complete with pink milk, cinnamon rolls with pink icing and strawberries! She has given me a love for holidays because she has always made them so special for us!
So here are a few Valentine's Day suggestions for you, for either a girl's night or date night!
-Girl's Night - One of my favorite blogs, The Everygirl posted these cute ideas for a fun girl's night Valentine party! Including ideas for decor, drinks, food and don't forget about dessert!
-Date Night - Last year for Valentine's Day, my parents had a progressive dinner around the house for Valentine's Day and I thought this was such a precious and fun idea! It was such a hit, they did it again this year! My parents have been married for 32 1/2 years and I admire them so much. They have such a biblically-based marriage filled with love, fun, and 3 (pretty cool, if you ask me!) kids. They had appetizers out on the dock, then dinner at the kitchen table, and my mom's famous chocolate cake, heart-shaped of course, at the high-top counter in the kitchen. So cute:) Dad brought mom beautiful flowers and they exchanged their Valentine's Day cards. Sounds like a pretty awesome date if you ask me!
Last year, Houston drove all the way from Atlanta on a Wednesday night and surprised me at my apartment by knocking on the door! I could NOT believe it! We picked up dinner and had a candlelight dinner together and just relaxed and watched a movie - one of our very favorite things to do!
And I just got a phone call that I have a "Valentine's present waiting for me at the apartment office!" Eeeek he's just the sweetest! Can't wait to see what it is:) My family, Houston, and his parents are all coming in town this weekend for Samford's infamous Step Sing weekend and I can't wait to all be together!
No matter your opinion of Valentine's Day, I hope it's special! Let me know if you have any other great ideas for this fun holiday!
xoxo,
A
Fitness Update:
Went to pure barre 3 times last week and 3 times this week so far! Woohoo! Just gotta start working on my food habits a little better!
Valentine's Day means a lot of different things to different people - some people like to call it Single Awareness Day, some people in relationships don't even like the holiday, and others like myself are hopeless romantics and love holidays in general so single or taken I've always loved this day! (But I've gotta admit, having the most wonderful guy as your Valentine has made these past three so wonderful and I look forward to many more together!)
From growing up, Mom used to dye all our breakfast food pink! (I will totally do this as a wife and mom one day!) Complete with pink milk, cinnamon rolls with pink icing and strawberries! She has given me a love for holidays because she has always made them so special for us!
Valentine's Day in the Boyd household circa 1996.
(You can see the pink milk in Betsy's cup!)
So here are a few Valentine's Day suggestions for you, for either a girl's night or date night!
-Girl's Night - One of my favorite blogs, The Everygirl posted these cute ideas for a fun girl's night Valentine party! Including ideas for decor, drinks, food and don't forget about dessert!
-Date Night - Last year for Valentine's Day, my parents had a progressive dinner around the house for Valentine's Day and I thought this was such a precious and fun idea! It was such a hit, they did it again this year! My parents have been married for 32 1/2 years and I admire them so much. They have such a biblically-based marriage filled with love, fun, and 3 (pretty cool, if you ask me!) kids. They had appetizers out on the dock, then dinner at the kitchen table, and my mom's famous chocolate cake, heart-shaped of course, at the high-top counter in the kitchen. So cute:) Dad brought mom beautiful flowers and they exchanged their Valentine's Day cards. Sounds like a pretty awesome date if you ask me!
Last year, Houston drove all the way from Atlanta on a Wednesday night and surprised me at my apartment by knocking on the door! I could NOT believe it! We picked up dinner and had a candlelight dinner together and just relaxed and watched a movie - one of our very favorite things to do!
Here are some of my favorite pictures of Houston and I these past 2 1/2 years! The bottom, center one is from when he surprised me last year on Valentine's Day! You can still tell my eyes are puffy from tears of joy and surprise!!
And I just got a phone call that I have a "Valentine's present waiting for me at the apartment office!" Eeeek he's just the sweetest! Can't wait to see what it is:) My family, Houston, and his parents are all coming in town this weekend for Samford's infamous Step Sing weekend and I can't wait to all be together!
No matter your opinion of Valentine's Day, I hope it's special! Let me know if you have any other great ideas for this fun holiday!
xoxo,
A
Fitness Update:
Went to pure barre 3 times last week and 3 times this week so far! Woohoo! Just gotta start working on my food habits a little better!
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