Jack and the Giant Peach: Holiday Stress

I'm not going to lie--for the first time ever, the holidays are stressing me out. This year, my family will be visiting for Christmas (YAY!) and Thomas' family will be visiting for New Years (YAY!) We're super excited, but as the days grow closer, I've realized just how much we have to do to get ready.

In a lot of ways, this year has been a HUGE year of transition. In years past, we've had pretty much nothing to do with holiday planning. Of course, we helped cook, decorate, and wrap gifts, but it wasn't "on us" to make sure everything went well. This year, however, it's "on us" to a whole new level. Our families are both travelling half way across the country to celebrate with us, and on top of that, some of them have never been to Atlanta before. So, not only do we need to make sure the holidays are filled with food, fun, and relaxation, we need to show them around a city that we honestly don't even know that well ourselves.

Don't get me wrong--I am beyond excited to see both of our families. And I don't want this post to come across as complainey and poor me, because who am I kidding--we're extremely lucky. It's been almost 6 months since we've laid eyes on our parents and siblings, and it will be so nice to see and talk to everyone in person. But, for the first time, I can also relate to the more "adult" stresses of the season. It doesn't help that once you're not in school, Christmas break goes from 2 months long...to about 6 days. Yep, get ready college kids. There's also a lot of planning, cleaning, and cooking to be done--and we're in charge of all of it! Definitely scary, but I know it will all come together. I've already started a list of things to buy...and I'll admit that the gifts are my biggest struggle.

On a completely different note, last week one of our clients visited who is a custom glass bead maker. I was so excited that she brought beads for each of us, and I spent quite a while picking mine.

Isn't it adorable? I do love those little penguins. What amazes me most is that the bead was crafted by hand.

Last night, I was laying on the couch while Jack & Charlotte snuggled on me. I haven't shown a lot of them lately on the blog, so I thought I'd feature them and their cuteness today.