Opryland Hotel

So one of my favorite places in Nashville is The Opryland Hotel.  It's so pretty!  If you've never been there to walk around, you have GOT to go!  Especially to stay there--so nice and wonderful :-)  We got to stay there a couple years ago when they ran their anniversary special, alas no more...We hope to go back this summer after our last wedding in Louisville.  Anyways, on our way out of Nashville for Thanksgiving we decided to stop there and look at all the pretty lights and decorations.  We love walking around there and taking it all in.  It was the first time the girls had been.  Kathryn was a tad overwhelmed, Reagan loved anything and everything that she saw!  

Thanksgiving

Well we went up to Springfield for Thanksgiving---we love having Thanksgiving there!  We drove up Tuesday night spent the rest of the week there, and came back Saturday.  Below are some highlights from the day.  The girls outside Nannie's house, Kathryn watching the parade, and Reagan playing outside in the bushes!

They had cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents to play with---they had a ball!  From bbq to Black Friday shopping, we had a blast and can't wait until we all get together again!

Christmas Schedule

Ok, so this isn't exactly a schedule per say but it's just kind of how we do things and when at our house...Christmas is one of our favorite times of the year and it's easy to get carried away with things.  Plus who doesn't love Christmas music and movies?  We don't watch them year round (except the occasional Veggietales) so below are kind of what we do.  However, this is not a list of what we believe or why we do things the way we do...just how a teaching mama makes the most of a holiday season without going crazy!

• We set aside money every month for gifts.  It goes for Christmas and the girls' birthday gifts.  We can access it at any time during the year, but we don't ever except for Kat's birthday presents
• No Christmas music or movies until November 1.  We don't watch/listen to them year round because then it's not special.  The date used to be December 1 but after kids and everything else, it just gets hectic!  
• We put our tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving.  That's all we do, well we decorate it too but we get it up before Thanksgiving. 
• I refuse to step into Toys R Us after Thanksgiving.  Therefore, every present for the girls and my nephew is done by the time Black Friday rolls around.  If possible I'll get Reagan's b-day present too, if not I'll pick something up during December.
• I stalk the websites and ads for leaks of Black Friday ads.  I know exactly what I'm getting and where.  I do not deviate,  I don't go out to get the crazy cheap deals or go crazy on people but I go to get what I need and at the good prices.  It's always kind of worked out where I'll go out with my mom in the morning then we'll meet my dad, Adam, and girls for lunch.  Then Adam and I will head to Target to get the main bulk of what we need.
• I have a holiday binder, and in the Christmas section I have a plastic page protector for all receipts, another one for copies of my ads, and so on.  I have an inventory list of what we need and the master gift list where the prices I paid the budgeted amount is there.
• We come home from TN on Saturday and Sunday is always spent decorating the house and Monday night we wrap as many of the gifts as we can.
• I don't normally do Cyber Monday things because I'm not a huge fan of online shopping.  Mainly because I find myself going crazier with shopping stuff because there is no visual in front of me.  However, now that more and more places are accepting paypal it makes it much easier since it comes straight out of my checking account.
• The rest of the holiday is spent baking, spending time with family, taking pics, etc....I plan everything like I do above so I can sit back and enjoy the Christmas season.
• Oh, one more thing.  If we go out of town for Christmas, we ALWAYS have a Christmas dinner here with the family.  When it was just Adam and I, we would open gifts; we won't do that now, but we might do stockings and Adam and I exchange gifts or something.  We want to make sure that some things we do, we do regardless whether we are in GA or East TN for the holiday.

Hope this helps and have fun planning your holiday season!!  All of my printables come from www.christmas.organizedhome.com :-)