Atwell Adventures

12 days of…

Last year, on December 10 to be exact, I got a little note in the mail from G.

And then I got another. And another.

And seven more over the next seven days.

And then on December 22, we got dressed up and headed off to Atlanta for our Christmas date!

12 days - 1 | Atwell Adventures
It was so sweet to be back with him {we were long distance throughout our relationship} and it was exciting that he was going to get to stay for more than 24 hours!

12 days - 2 | Atwell Adventures

On the way home, we stopped for Starbucks {I hadn’t had Starbucks in a whole month!} and then continued to make our way back to my parents house.

To my surprise, Starbucks wasn’t the end of our date.

As we neared the house, G told me to close my eyes.

As I held my eyes shut and the car was parked.  I heard a familiar song.

And then I knew.

G was proposing.

It truly didn’t feel real {which he can probably attest to by the fact I kept touching his face to make sure I wasn’t in a dream – TRUE STORY}.

He still had one more card to finish what I now affectionately call the “12 days of Christmas Our Relationship”.

Each card had a significant date in our relationship and the last one read*, “December 22, 2012”.

It was hard to focus and I was so, so, so overwhelmed with JOY and THANKFULNESS. After alot of sweet words {that I asked him to say again later}, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

YESSSS!

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I was going to be G’s wife!

While I probably can’t tell you how many lords a leaping or swans swimming there are, I can tell you that those 12 notes I received last December we’re some of the best I’ve ever gotten.

12 days - 3 | Atwell Adventures

And I can’t believe its been a whole year!  

Couldn’t have asked for a better year of engagement and 5 months and 15 days of marriage!

Thanks G, for making our engagement such a beautiful memory!

*I didn’t actually see this note until later that night – after we were engaged – due to a little mix-up on a certain baby sisters part.  It’s ok, Ruch… I wouldn’t have been able to comprehend it anyways;)

Around the House

decorating for our first Christmas

As I write this, I am wrapped up in a blanket {we’ve yet to turn on the heat}, sipping some hot chocolate with a giant marshmallow, and staring at this view.

First Christmas | Atwell Adventures 1
Ahhh, Christmas.

I was so excited to decorate for our first Christmas! The only problem – our move fell on December 4, so we had to wait until after our move was complete to purchase our tree and decorations.  Booooo.  Imagine me feeling like a scrooge when our house had nothing but a wreath on the door for the first 9 days of December.

As it turns out though, it was worth waiting a few extra days because we got some beautiful things – and memories – to begin our Christmas collection!

The Monday after our move, we ventured out for some lights, ornaments, wrapping paper, and a tree.

We found a local tree stand less than a mile from our house and brought home our first Christmas tree! 

First Christmas | Atwell Adventures 2

First Christmas | Atwell Adventures 5

As for tree decorations, we kept it pretty simple for the colors – golds, silvers, whites – and used just a little over 50 ornaments.  Our tree topper is actually an ornament that G carefully placed and made it look like a topper.

I also made one ornament, which has still yet to be placed on our tree.  So far its my favorite.

First Christmas | Atwell Adventures 3

It’s a basic glass ornament with one of our wedding invitations inside.  I cut up one of our wedding invitations {white} and envelopes {gold}, “curled” them, and placed them inside the ornament.  Now I just have to find some string to hang it.

Another favorite? Our stockings!

First Christmas | Atwell Adventures 6

Finding stockings that we both liked, weren’t too expensive, and are somewhat neutral was alot harder than I expected. But when I found these and showed them to G after he got home from work last week – we made an order!  I’m thinking of getting our monograms in white, but may wait until next year to see if I really like the idea {but let’s be honest, when do I NOT like a monogram;)}.

First Christmas | Atwell Adventures 7

Speaking of white, you may see some white peeking out of the base of our tree.  We still haven’t found a tree skirt that we love so right now, we just have one of our white quilt underneath, which actually kind of works and G says looks like snow:)

I love to look at our tree all lit up – especially at night.  I only wish we had a pullout sofa so we could sleep by it!

First Christmas | Atwell Adventures 4

Merry Christmas from our new home to yours!

ps – that’s one more off my 101 in 1001: decorate for Christmas!

101 in 1001 | Atwell Adventures (small)

Atwell Adventures

leeward the elf

This past Sunday, December 1, we did something we’ve been talking about for a while… we bought an Elf on the Shelf!

leeward the elf | Atwell Adventures

While I realize that most people that use Elf on the Shelf have children under their roof, I always laugh when I see what the elves are doing.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about just look here

So Sunday after church we decided to adopt an elf of our own!

After we purchased him – we started talking about names.  We wanted to name him something that reminded us of our first home so after lots of ideas like Wilmy {for Wilmington}, Hampy {for Hampstead} and Pender {for Pender County}, we decided to go with the first street we lived on.

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And Leeward the Elf was named.

G kicked us off by placing him on day 1 and we plan on just alternating days until Christmas Eve.

As silly as this is, it really has been fun and I’m excited to have Leeward the Elf in our home for many years to come.

Although, those eyes and that smile… so creepy 😉

ps – Want to see what Leeward the Elf is up to?  Click here!