merry everything!

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year from the Kettermans!

  We obviously were really on top of Christmas and sending out cards, but it's not 2012 yet. So we are ahead of the New Years wishes at least! And it's also our blog-versary*.

  Anyways, we had a great Christmas. At first it didn't really feel much like Christmas for some reason, maybe it was the 81 degree weather? I should be used to this by now being a Florida native, but for some reason I'm not.

  Also, we spent Christmas Eve in the hospital visiting my Father-in-law who had a couple major surgeries in hopes to figure out some complications he's been having. And we have had a couple dear friends in our lives going through tough times. I know people are going through even worse things,  but God really put things into perspective for me. Like the anticipation for Christmas isn't about being jolly 24/7, feeling the christmas spirit, or real christmas trees & their wonderful smell (we still didn't get one this year after Randy had an allergy attack after spending 2 minutes by one). 

    It's cliche, but God really showed me this Christmastime specifically, how much I need to be focused on Him- our Comforter, Healer, Forgiver, Savior. Those descriptions meant a lot to us this season, and maybe they did for you too!

Enough wordage- here's some of the Christmas fun we did squeeze in + a little Stinson fam photo shoot in the following post. Enjoy and thanks for following our life this past year. Here's to another!

*blog-versary: A year since we/I started this.

The tree Rands built. He did a great job making it feel like the real thing.

These rad antlers I found @ west elm. They are now marked on clearance for $5.00! check here.

The sweetest, best gift from my boo♥

These oreo truffles are easy and always a hit- find them here.

CHRISTMAS DAY.

road trip pt 2: savannah

This is basically a load of pictures. But we obviously travel to eat. It was so fun just to wake up and walk everywhere without an agenda (we stayed in the historical district area) and explore. It was so cute, clean and we loved it. Our fave places are all pictured below, no particular order with mixtures of other things. This was the best bday gift ever, and I would highly suggest this as a destination for anyone.

 

In case you wanted to know the history before singing it this Christmas

#word

bff

I just have to note: If I was Rachel circa 1990, I would have been all over this. I still kinda was actually.

Paula Deen's- I gained 20lbs just walking by

zunzis! Amazing- I got the Conquistador. And it was the most embarrassing thing to eat in public, we looked like we had never eaten a sub before, they were huge.

gallery espresso

PSAV- represent!

lulus chocolate bar- def had this for dinner one night

clarys cafe

Perfect ending to a perfect week.

road trip pt one: ATL

For my birthday this year, my sweet husbands gift to me was a road trip! I told him awhile ago my desire to take a trip to Savannah, Ga, so that's what we did. He decided to add a little ATL detour to see the sister-fam on the way (even though it's not really on the way). So here is a little documentation from part one. There is a lot of burgers along the way, and maybe too many pictures of me, I try to get my photographer in shots, but it's not always easy.

First stop: The Vortex. First burger of the trip & we decided to get the Elvis. It was amazing. Minus the banana.

The next morning we met sister Dixon & kids, my fave people in the world. We tried a cute breakfast place called: rias bluebird

The sun was extra bright that morning, but I had to try show my favorite little people- esp Truett shoving food in his mouth.

Latte Break: cacao

There he is!

Burger no. 2: yeah burger

Final Dinner: empire state south

This dinner was so good, I didn't even think to take pictures because I was stuffing my face. We tried the duck ravioli, steak and goat cheese fritters. Delish.

Advent!

It always amazes me how quickly Christmas sneaks up after Thanksgiving, this year being no exception. We wanted to try and maybe start a tradition or two, so this year I did this advent calendar, we're reading through this to go with it, and we are getting a real tree for the first time (pretending that Randy doesn't really have allergies to Christmas Trees or that he somehow mysteriously outgrew them).

Anyways- I continually still find myself dwelling on gifts I have to buy and the stress of just "doing" a lot for Christmas, and have managed to become majorly distracted. I saw this and though I don't see anything wrong with celebrating Christmas with gifts too, this just put things into an even grander perspective for me.  Enjoy and happy advent season!

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