Christmas 2017

I can't believe I am already recapping Christmas 2017. It seems like just the other day I was planning my content for the Christmas season and poof now it is gone! 

{ Stephenson Winter Bucket List // Christmas Cards 2017 }

Y'all it is my favorite time of the year - Christmas card season! I absolutely love coming home and going to the mailbox and receiving Christmas cards from my friends and family! I guess this is what adult life is like...literally racing to get home to see who we got a Christmas card from! I know I say that every year but it just makes me so happy!

8 Favorite Christmas Doormats on Etsy

Welcome back to Girl Talk Blog and welcome back to another Christmas Decor blog post! 

Gift Ideas for the Newlyweds

Can you believe it, it is already the beginning of December?? Christmas will be here before we blink our eyes and the start of 2018 will begin! Timmy and I still feel like Newlyweds, even though we just celebrated our 2nd Anniversary, but I still love getting "Newlywed gifts", even if we aren't technically newlyweds!

Top Ten Favorite Christmas Card Designs

Y'all sending and receiving Christmas cards is one of my favorite things about the Holidays! I love seeing all the cute pictures of the little kids in my life and seeing old friends that I don't talk to on a normal basis and how they have changed over the past year! We usually use  Minted for our Christmas Cards, so I have put together a top ten of my favorites from this year! 

Maybe one of these will be the card we used, who knows!!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was all about Christmas activities! We really started December off right and in the Christmas Spirit!

8 Favorite Christmas Door Hangers on Etsy

Another season, another decor post! Y'all loved my Fall Decor lists, so I have created one all for Christmas! Can you believe we are already getting into the Christmas posts?! I can't!

Family Christmas Mountain Trip 2016

Well unfortunately the Holidays have come and gone and we celebrated another Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. 

Enjoying our 2nd Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. ❤ Our favorite gift was this wood sign from my sister made by my good friend over at @lulusletterco 💕💕

A photo posted by Ashley Stephenson (@girltalkblog0803) on Dec 25, 2016 at 8:57am PST

Last Minute Gift Ideas

Have you ever been in a bind and needed to grab one last minute gift for someone? Well, if you haven't you are lucky and very good at not procrastinating! If you are like me you almost always have to pick up one last gift on the way to Christmas Eve dinner or on the way to a party. So for you last minute shoppers, here are some of my go-to gifts that will work for anyone!

{ Stephenson Winter Bucket List // Christmas Cards 2016 }

Receiving and sending Christmas cards is one of my favorite things about the Holidays! Well, besides driving through neighborhoods and seeing all the trees in the windows or the lights outside!

Christmas Card Inspiration

Timmy and I have been sending Christmas cards for the past 2 years now, this year will make 3 and I just love looking at the designs and creating our card. One of my favorite things about the Holidays are sending and receiving Christmas cards! 

Christmas Decor Wish List

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Does anyone else feel like this year is flying by! Now it is time to start thinking of Christmas. If it was possible, I would decorate the heck out of my house for Christmas and just be merry all the time. But I don't have all the money in the world, so like every other girl out there I have a wish list of all the items I would love to have in my home this Christmas season. 

Be Merry: Christmas Q & A

Last week one of my favorite bloggers Sarah posted a Christmas Q&A and I thought I would join her. Tomorrow is Christmas- how did we already get here! I honestly can't believe it is Christmas already! This year has flown by!

what is your favorite Christmas memory?

My favorite Christmas memory would have to be the last one we had with my mom. My grandmother had just opened her brand new Michael Kors purse from my grandfather and the look on her face was just awful...which at first we weren't sure why because she wrapped it and picked it out! Well about an hour later she went back to the purse and the same face appeared...something clearly was wrong. After my mom kept bugging her about it we realized the purse was losing its fullness as my grandmother says and was laying too flat so my grandmother went around the room and picked up almost every piece of paper that was on the ground and began stuffing her purse to make it full again. My mom found it so ridiculous that my grandmother was doing this and made all of these hilarious jokes. Last Christmas, my grandmother got another purse, and although my mom is not here with us we made sure her spirit was by giving her paper to stuff her purse before she could even think about it along with tons of jokes.

name a favorite Christmas tradition?

Christmas Day is a BUSY day for us. We usually start with breakfast at my grandmothers then open presents then have lunch and then I go to my Dads open presents and then we drive 2 hours to my other grandmothers and have dinner and then open presents there as well. But 2 of my favorite traditions is that at my grandmothers in the morning we all sit in the same place every single year and we have been for about 10 years and my other grandparents house if I don't have hot apple cider to drink while opening presents then it just doesn't feel like Christmas.

winter Starbucks drink order?

peppermint mocha

what is your favorite winter treat?

I haven't had it in about 2 years but my mom used to make the best chocolate peanut butter fudge. I am on the hunt for her recipe so I can carry on the tradition.

favorite sounds of the season?

mariah carey's all I want for Christmas...I can't get enough of it

snow or no snow?

I would love to have snow. I think it has only snowed a handful of times on Christmas Eve/Day. We go to the mountains the day after Christmas every year and it is always a lot prettier with a blanket of snow covering the ground.

what is your typical Christmas fashion?

We usually stay in our PJ's up until we are ready to leave for my mommas. I will then typically throw on leggings, boots, and a festive top. 

what is number one on your wish list this year?

anything with my new monogram. I have to start new on my monogram collection...they are all with my maiden name and now that I have a new monogram I don't even want to use any of my old monogrammed stuff.

favorite Christmas movie?

My favorite Christmas movie has changed over the years...when my mom was alive I was so tired of a Christmas Story basically because as soon as December started it was on 24/7 in her house. Now I find myself watching it every chance I get.

favorite Christmas scent?

Christmas Cookie

Don't forget to post your answers to the questions either in the comments or in your own post! 

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{ Stephenson Winter Bucket List // Christmas Party }

Christmas parties are one of my favorite things about the Holidays! I love getting all dressed up in red and green and showing our holiday spirit! Every year 2 of our close friends host a Christmas party at their house - this is the 3rd year they have done it! The first year it was pretty big but as the years go on it has gotten smaller - just the way I like it! We all brought something to eat and played games and just enjoyed the festive time!

This year I made the Funfetti Cake Batter Dip and it was so good! We had Buffalo Chicken dip, BBQ sliders, mac n cheese, sausage balls and a mexican dip. Needless to say we hardly had any food left over!

We were lucky enough to get to enjoy multiple Christmas parties this year. We went to a themed one (Tacky Sweater..post coming) and we also got to go to my company Christmas party. These past few weekends have been filled with Christmas parties and I love it! 

Usually we have the company Christmas party down by our pond at our house, but since it is always a mess after everyone leaves we decided to try something else this year. This year we rented a space not too far from our house to have the party. Having the party somewhere else saved us from having to clean up and left the responsibility of the entire event on someone else's shoulders and not my dads. It was nice being able to leave the party and not have to still hear people partying from my bedroom. The only downfall was that my purse along with my friends purse got stolen out of our car. We don't think it was anyone from the party, there were some other random people there. So today I am having to go to the bank and open up all new accounts...headache from hell.

What is left on my list?

+ go ice skating downtown

+ build a snowman

+ make a gingerbread house

+ attend a hockey game

+ decorate Christmas cookies

+ decorate our Christmas tree

+ send out Christmas cards

+ go to a Christmas party

+ go to an ugly sweater Christmas party

+ go see Christmas lights

+ make fireplace s'mores

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{ Stephenson Winter Bucket List // Christmas Cards }

This year it was a scramble to get our Christmas cards created, printed and mailed out! We got married November 21 then went to Virginia for Thanksgiving for a few days and right after that we went straight on our Honeymoon. We didn't get back until December 5th and I was trying to wait until the last minute to order our cards because I really hoping I would have at least one professional picture of the two of us from our wedding to use on our card. Well, we didn't get one so I had to scramble to find some decent iPhone photos from the wedding to use. I knew I wanted to use photos from our wedding because let's be honest I am obsessed with just the few iPhone photos we have so far and I loved everything about our wedding AND there are some really cute Christmas cards for newlyweds! So here is our first Christmas card as Mr. & Mrs. Stephenson! (we also used the card as a thank you card!)

Here are our cards from last year!

What is left on my list?

+ go ice skating downtown

+ build a snowman

+ make a gingerbread house

+ attend a hockey game

+ decorate Christmas cookies

+ decorate our Christmas tree

+ send out Christmas cards

+ go to a Christmas party

+ go to an ugly sweater Christmas party

+ go see Christmas lights

+ make fireplace s'mores

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Gift Guide [ For the Office ]

Somehow I got lucky in the office and only work with one other woman...which means I only have to buy one Christmas present for my co-workers. Well, of course my boss but he is my Dad so of course he gets a present. But I always struggle with what to get my co-worker. One year I got her a gift card to Olive Garden and another year I got her a Scentsy Wax Warmer, I think she liked both. But this year now that I know her a little better, I am struggling with what to get her because I really want to get her something she likes. So if you are in the same boat as I am here are some gift ideas I have come up with.

one // Yankee Candle

two // ornament 

three // Godiva Chocolate

four // mug

What are you getting your co-workers this year?

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Gift Guide [ Kate Spade Edition ]

If you are anything like me, you love everything Kate Spade. So this Holiday season a lot of Kate Spade items have shown up on my wish list. If you have some special ladies on your list you still need to get presents for some of these gifts may be the perfect one for them!

Cooking mit set // Thermal Mug // Agenda // Candle 

Glitter Wallet // Passport Holder // Perfume // Shoes

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Favorite Christmas Movies

Merry Christmas!

Wow, I can't believe it is already December 25th. I don't know where this year went. The Christmas season is coming to a close but I still enjoy watching Christmas movies after Christmas. This season I didn't watch as many Christmas movies as I would have liked but I still have my favorites.

A Christmas Story

Home Alone...all of them

Elf

The Grinch

Miracle on 34th Street

The Santa Clause

A Christmas Carol

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

A Charlie Brown Christmas

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Christmas Outfits { Guest Post: Meghan @ Champagne & Suburbs }

Hey y'all!  I'm Meghan and I blog over at Champagne & Suburbs.  I am a newlywed living in Raleigh, NC with my husband and furball, Winston.  For our first married Christmas, DG and I decided to take a little trip together for the holiday.   For Christmas Eve, we will be doing a lot of walking and it's supposed to rain.  And if I'm going to be walking a lot, I have to wear my trusty wunder unders.  Here's my planned outfit:

For Christmas Eve evening, I'm wearing this outfit.  This would be great for a Christmas Eve service or a nice dinner out.

You'll have to check back for my Christmas dinner outfit.  DG and I are going out for a highly recommended dinner and I can't wait to show you all the details!

What are your Christmas plans?  Are you planning out your outfits or just winging it?

Have a Merry Christmas and be sure to stop by and say hey over at my blog!  And be sure to enter the giveaway Ashley and I are co-hosting!