And to Nashville we go...

We are so excited to head to Nashville today for the Sanford/Mulally/Connell/Riley/Fry reunion. Even more excited Tom is with me!!! :)

Yehaaw. Boots are shined.

Merry Christmas from the Sanford's.

Our stockings are hung, and presents are wrapped. We even had some snow this week to get us in the mood. We are so thankful and blessed to have had such a wonderful year and we are excited to spend our first Christmas together.

We've been very busy leading up to Christmas. Here's what we've been up to:

Tom's Christmas party was last weekend at the Marriott hotel in Briar Cliff. A group of our friends took a limo and we had a blast! Tradebot gave all the employees mini iPad's and Tom and I have already used it a lot.

The next night we went to a concert at the Midland. It was an amazing concert with one of my faves, Of Monsters and Men. Tom and I were beat that Sunday!

We went down to El Dorado to see my grandma, dad, Emily, and Tristan on Saturday. It was a fun day and we got some very nice gifts to take back with us to Kansas City! - including a new bread bowl from the bread master himself. (Thanks guys!!)

We made Christmas candy to take around to our neighbors and had a delicious holiday meal with our neighbors Doug and Tish.

We went ice skating with Katherine and her boyfriend at Crown Center. All of the lights down there are amazing. I remember always going to this rink when I was little with our dad.

Tom and I are delivering meals to families through the Salvation Army on Christmas Day. They assign you five houses, and we figured it would be a good opportunity since we are both in Kansas City on Christmas. Other than that we plan to sleep in, enjoy biscuits and sausage gravy (from the Local Pig), open presents, go to the movies, and relax.

We have the best friends and family and loved receiving everyone's Christmas cards! It's on my to-do list to find a clever way to display them next year. Ideas?!

We leave the day after Christmas for Nashville to spend time with the best family. Ever. I think there are 20 of us going this year! Can't wait for lots of laughter, good eats and country dancing! Yeahaaawww! (Photos and stories to follow!)

Merry Christmas to all!

Presents are all wrapped under our tree - ready for Christmas. 

Local Pig

Our first snow of winter. I think our Christmas decor got frozen to our porch pillars. oops!

This has nothing to do with this blog post, I just wanted to post this cute picture of Tom. Love him. :)

At the Of Monsters and Men concert. 

The concert was at the Midland in downtown KC - a very old beautiful theater. 

Of Monsters and Men! 

Tradebot Christmas Party.

All of the treats lined up ready to take to the neighbors. 

Lots of Christmas cards from friends and family 

Crowne Center at Christmas time

Loved getting mail like this during the holidays. Made my heart smile!

Tom and I ate brunch at Union Station. 

Holiday Homes Tour

Tom and I went on the KKG holiday homes tour a couple weeks ago. I have been meaning to blog about thsi. The holiday season escaped me. I only got a few photos from the night because it was a little awkward to get photos with people around inside someone else's home. ;)

We got some fun ideas for decorating that we will use on a much smaller scale. A florist was assigned to each house, and one house even had flowers flown in from HOLLAND. What?! What in the world is wrong with our flowers? Gesh.

It. was. amazing. Not only did it put us in the Christmas spirit, but all of the decor and history in the homes were amazing. The houses were all over KC and each had a different style. We went to Nelly Don's home - the first self made millionaire. History: www.nellydon.com/story.html

More holiday updates to come!

It's Begining to Look a lot Like Christmas!

The Sanford house is in Christmas mode. Tom and I have had a lot of fun beginning our collection of Christmas decorations and establishing our own Christmas traditions.

So far we have...

• Peppmermint ice cream - have it. eat it. it puts you in the holiday mood. 
• Christopher Elbow hot chocolate - if you haven't tried it, it's a must. Christmas explosion in your mouth. 
• National Lampoons Christmas vacation - watched it, along with 2341 other cheezy Christmas movies leading up to Christmas.  
• Church- going to church during Advent is the best! Especially with the gorgeous decorations at Old Mission. 
• Decorating - We are collecting lots of cute, rustic, Christmas decor for our home. Must decorate while listening to Christmas music. 
• Holiday homes tour - there are so many awesome tours in KC. This year we are going on the KKG Holiday Homes tour. It's going to be amazing. 
• Emmet Otters Jugband Christmas- One of Tom's holiday traditions from when he was younger that we have kept going. 
• Christmas lights - there are some serious Christmas light enthusiasts in Kansas City. Anyone have a favorite neighborhood?

Manford the Sanford holiday moose. 

Gingerbread cookies - yummy!

After. ohhhh ahhhh

Ornament of 2012!

Before

We are going to this tomorrow- photos to follow! 

The Sanford's Host Thanksgiving!

Tom and I hosted Thanksgiving this year at our house. We had SO much fun, and everything went smoothly. We really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with our family. Everyone got in on Wednesday night, and we got to catch up and snack on the delicious spicy/sweet nuts we made and apple cider. 


We got up early Thursday morning, and ate the blueberry coffee cake we made, fruit, bacon, orange juice, and coffee. Then the cooking began! We had a delicious spread of green beans, carrots, rolls, corn, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, meatballs, cheese plate, cranberry relish, pecan pie, pumpkin pie and more! Wow. 

After we recovered from our food coma we napped and played games that night in our basement. It was so nice to have the basement finished so we could all relax and enjoy ourselves. I loved hosting, and couldn't believe how smooth things went. It was so stress free to have everyone here at our house. Good memories!