Oh hey! I am betting your blog feeds are all filled with 2015 this & that, so you're probably surprised to see Christmas 2014, well, I am pretty much on this really bad procrastination kick (I'm working on it though) so I am dedicating my first post of the New Year to what were my last photos of last year... seemed smart in my brain ;) So here ya go... a little recap of all things our wonderfully relaxing Christmas vacation at the beach was...
The Beach House//
Mom got there earlier in the week before the Hubs and I and the rest of the fam got there and decorated the whole place. It felt so homey and cozy! It was the perfect place to spend our first Christmas away from Georgia and our first Christmas without my brother... For those of you who are new to the blog we lost my brother last July to a drug overdose. This was our first Christmas ever without him & there was no way we could imagine spending it the same way we had all the years before. The beach was our favorite place to be as a family and it just made sense to be there this year for Christmas.
Very cool sidetone: When mom got to the beach she walked out back on the porch and saw dolphins... she knew it was my brother there in spirit saying "Hey, mom! Merry Christmas!" :)
Our favorite place to hangout - the amazing porches (yes, plural!) the one of the bed swing was right off of our bedroom! We did our reading and bible studying out there. The beach is absolutely our place of peace and restoration.
Every year my family always gets a new ornament related to something that we either did, enjoyed, or a place we went to. This year instead of doing a memory tree with all of our ornaments we did a memory tree for just my brother... It was beautiful and it was so much fun to look at all of the ornaments because everyone reminded us of another great memory of him. The top left ornament is from The Davis Direction Foundation, a local foundation promoting Heroin/Opiate Addiction Awareness efforts. I picked some of my favorite ornaments- Continuing clockwise: me and my brother- one of my favorite pics of us, then a fish bc he used to be obsessed with fishing in middle school, a hot wheels car because to say he was obsessed with cars as a kid is an understatement, he also loved basketball and played all of the time, and the final is a red tennis shoe that says " I believe I can fly"- mom and I found it at Hobby Lobby this year and HAD to buy it because he LOVED shoes (I'm pretty sure he had more tennis shoe than me!), he loved the color red, and he is flying with the angels now :)
everything about it was just perfect!
My ornament this year ;)
It's no secret mom & I have a slight Starbucks obsession... this tree is decked out in our Starbucks ornaments we buy every year!
What We Did//
Puzzles, Puzzles, and MORE puzzles!
Walks on the beach with this handsome guy :)
On Christmas Eve we lit candles in remembrance of my brother.
The obligatory Christmas morning family photo in matching pajamas, of course.
We also had bonfires on the beach at night - it was the first time we had ever done that- so much fun!!
What I Wore//
(On Christmas day)
the rest of the days I rocked pajamas and workout gear
Piko Top: Sage Clothing {exact}
Black Skinnies: J.Lo via Kohls
Boots: Target- ON SALE! {exact}
Christmas Scarf: gifted (from Kohl's)
yep, can't have outfit pics taken without a little silly face action!
What We Ate//
Breakfast//
Sweet Potato Waffles & Bacon
French Toast w/ Cranberry Sauce & Gluten- free Sausage Cheese Muffins (used gluten free Bisquick)
Pumpkin Oatmeal Casserole & Bacon (Clean Eating)
Lunch//
Grilled Chicken BLT Salad
Grilled Chicken, Bacon, Tomato, Spinach, Sunflower seeds, hard boiled egg, balsamic dressing
Christmas Dinner Leftover Salad
Ham, cranberry sauce, tomatoes, avocado, hard boiled egg, spinach lettuce, & balsamic dressing
Dessert//
Note: we substituted vanilla greek yogurt for cream cheese & sugar in recipe- it was delish!!
Oh and yes we ate dinner every night, but this girl was hungraaay and totally forgot to take dinner pics! oops!
Our Last Day//
And.... for your enjoyment... just so you know who I get my weirdness from ;)
As always, thanks for reading! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season!
Here is to a VERY belated Happy New Years!
~ xoxo ~
Danielle
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