Christmas Eve

 Although we fought some illness, Tom and I really enjoyed our first Christmas as  married couple in our new home. We unexpectedly had nothing to do on Christmas Eve. Since we were sitting around we decided we might as well burn some of the wood we bought late in the fall. We bundled up (in multiple layers), made some warm drinks and sat our by the fire. Although it was chilly we were very warm and enjoyed the calm before the craziness of Christmas activities.

Tom builds a good fire

Me and Tom by the fire...this is so exciting!

Please excuse the abundance of our pics before we head to Christmas Eve with the Raus. I simply couldn't believe Tom was willing to take all of these photos...and SMILE! 

trying to pose so you could see our tiny baby Christmas tree. pretty funny. 

trying to pose next to the tree...in fact we just make the tree look even smaller

Notice the tip of the tree next to us

In front of the mantel

me with the Treys at my parents

My sweet boy, Trey

my parent's house always looks so pretty at Christmastime

most of the gang watching video of my dad and uncle as kids

It was a fun but busy Christmas Eve. i wish I would have gotten more pictures but it's always a bit chaotic with all the people and little ones and present opening and eating and...there's just no time for pictures.

New York, New York!

I have always wanted to see New York at Christmastime. I finally decided this was the year. I got a ticket for a week in December and was thrilled to go see a good friend and my cousin. I stayed in Midtown for three nights and the upper east side for one night. Both areas were great to explore and enjoy the beauty that is NYC at Christmas. I had such a great time and hope to take my mom with me sometime in the near future. She would love all the sights and sounds of NYC at Christmas.

These photos are in no particular order...some of the sights of New York at Christmas time. 

View of Central Park from the NYAC looking toward the Upper East Side

me at the NYAC

This picture captures some of the craziness. Looking down Fifth Avenue. 

The Empire State Building from Bryant Park

My friend lives very close to the Chrysler Building. I probably walked by it ten times
before I finally looked up and saw it there.  

Sweet Corniglia made my week. She was such a trooper as we went all over New York

She does this little pose every time she sees someone on their phone. So sweet. 

pretty view out of Whitney's family's apartment

Grand Central

Guggenheim...one of our favorite places on my first ever NYC trip

Kevin McAllister's hotel

Rockefeller Tree! 

Windows at Saks

Santa Con took place while we were there. It was pretty much a Santa themed city wide bar hop.
I literally saw thousands of Santas in one day. So hilarious. 

a pretty street on Upper East Side

Me, Corniglia and Whitney at Rockefeller Tree

What a fun trip! Thanks Whitney and Sarah. I can't wait to go back.

MBU Lax Christmas Party

This is my fifth year coaching women's lacrosse at MBU. I believe our Christmas party tradition has been going on for four of the five years. Each year we have a Christmas party the last weekend before finals. We draw names in October because everyone has to make her gift. It is top secret who everyone has. It's become such a wonderful and fun tradition. Each year I ask the girls if they want to continue to make gifts and each year it is an enthusiastic, "yes!" With the invention of pinterest the gifts keep getting better and better! This year the party was at my house and was so fun. 

 Above is a picture of my team...try and find the coach! I totally look like one of the players and often get confused. Below is a picture of all of us holding our homemade gifts. I got beautiful coffee bag pillows. I love them! 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This was the second year Tom and I cut down a Christmas tree. I was really excited to decorate our house this year. We went out on a gorgeous 70 degree day the first weekend in December. His mom, sister, brother in law and nephew joined us. It was a bit bizarre to be cutting a Christmas tree down in shorts (or sweating in long sleeves) but it was really nice to simply enjoy being outside. We hiked all over and Tom found a perfect little tree. 

Connor was so sweet with his Christmas pants and boots on 

best good buddies

Tom was normal but OF COURSE my eyes are closed

Tom cuts down our teeny tiny baby tree

Connor helping Tom pull the tree

 It didn't take any time at all to get the tree up and decorated. We have very few ornaments so we really couldn't have had any bigger however, it does look a bit small in our living room. Regardless, we love the festivity of the tree and lights at this time of the year. Nothing is quite as warm feeling as Christmas lights and a fire in the fire place.

I made the Merry Christmas from the Mueths sign that hangs in front of our house

 I've been wanting to start some traditions of our own since I grew up on holiday traditions. I guess traditions come a bit more naturally but I wanted to be somewhat intentional about them. I decided a great way of building our ornament collection would be through buying each other an ornament representing the year. The ornaments were left in our shoes by each other on St. Nick's Day. Hope this is a tradition that lasts. I gave Tom a house since this is the year we bought our first house. He gave me a lantern as an inside joke from our wedding.

our humble little tree without any presents 

 I am looking forward to the rest of the holiday season. It's fun to be Mrs. Mueth and to share this time of year with both of our families.