oh christmas tree!

"pick out & cut down our own christmas tree"

i couldn't cross it off our christmas bucket list and not share the adventure with you.

we headed to a little family owned tree farm not too far from our apartment. it was small and cute. they gave us a saw, a real saw, and ben carried it around because he's the man. we deliberated over about a hundred trees {okay, maybe not even a dozen trees}.

ben inspected them to make sure they were the right height. he's so technical. he also touched it a lot. i guess because he's a scientific man.

when we {mainly ben} decided it was 'the one' we began sawing.

you have to saw it really close to the ground because that's what the man said. then, it was my turn to saw.

okay, lie, i just posed for this picture. 

then ben took back over and finished it off.

we bought our tree, tied it to the top of my car {also a first} and took it home.

you know what happens next.

yep, even more precision from ben. i just put the ornaments on all willy nilly.

it turned out pretty nice, i'd say. i love all the color even if it is slightly tacky. i mean what's christmas without a little bit of tacky.

so of course we set up the self timer and cheesed it for a nice christmas tree picture.

:)

so there you have it. the story of our christmas tree. 

our christmas bucket list.

it's officially christmas go time. 

time to pencil all the fun things we want to do in just over a month.
here's what we plan to do in the next few weeks:

-- drive around town looking and rating christmas lights. it's a one to ten scale and we may award one 'ten' a year. this is a long standing tradition.

-- bake cookies. dunk them in milk. 

-- watch elf & it's a wonderful life. we will not, i repeat, will not be watching polar express because i hate that movie. so very much.

-- spend a weekend in helen, the cheesiest christmas town of all, with the married friends from college.

-- ride the pink pig. just google it.

-- do a twelve days of christmas devotional with my main squeeze.

-- listen to the 'judy garland holiday' station on pandora as much as possible. {in progress}

-- pick out & cut down our own christmas tree.

-- stuff ben's stocking so fat that it almost falls off the wall.

-- attend the tree lighting in our city. 

-- make a few christmas gifts. {in progress}

-- shop. after christmas sales. i've got my eye on those '12 days of christmas' ornaments at target..

-- make our own peppermint lattes & gingerbread lattes. 

that's one down. twelve more to go.

what's on your bucket list this christmas season?

thanksgiving with the fam.

ben and i spent thanksgiving at my grandparents house this year. it's been a long standing tradition for me and i loved sharing it with ben. last year we spent thanksgiving hiking in portland and searching for restaurants that were open -- while i will always remember that thanksgiving as a fun adventure, it was nice to do the family thing this year. i love doing the family thing.

it didn't hurt that we got to spend plenty of time with the cutest little girl i've ever seen. she's even cute when she's fussy. i know, shame on me, i will eat those words one day when i'm a mother, but for now i can't help it. all her little faces just crack me up.

we ate till we couldn't eat anymore and then we ate more for the heck of it. 

isn't that what thanksgiving is about?

:)

giving thanks.

{source}

i'm thankful for...

-- a roof over my head & food in my fridge

-- a job, that not only pays the bills, but gives me a lot of laughs and a lot of hugs every day.

-- shoes. i love shoes, people. and scarves. and coats. moving on now before you start calling me materialistic.

-- a good coffee pot and man that makes the most delicious coffee for me every morning.

-- even more than that, a man that gets up to have coffee and breakfast with me every morning, even when he doesn't have early classes.

-- getting to spend thanksgiving at my granny & papa's. getting to see family that only see a few times a year & getting to see my so very adorable niece. eating a-mazing food and too much of it. 

-- marrying a man that knows how to make some killer pumpkin pie (he makes pumpkin pie and coffee, what more could i ask for?)

-- fuzzy, snuggly blankets and leaving the heat off so i can use as many as possible. i'm weird like that.

-- avocados. green and squishy. who knew they'd taste so yummy. one of my favorite foods for sure.

-- the ability to sew. it's fun. it's useful. it's practically invaluable.

-- hot showers.

-- peppermint jo-jo's. get some at your local trader joes. ben and i are addicted.

-- living here. i love atlanta.

-- my dad who loves his huge garden and supplies us with tons and tons of fresh veggies {and herbs!} in the summer and frozen veggies in the winter. 

-- the christmas season and ALL the fun that it entails.

-- benjamin kerr {have i mentioned him yet?} the best husband and friend i could ever have asked for. he makes me laugh all the time, pumps gas for me, joins me on random adventures, listens to my rants and raves about life, kisses me goodnight, and loves me all the time.

-- a loving God that all these good things {and more} come from.

happy thanksgiving everyone!

weekend getaway.

if you know me, you know that do not like tourist trap little towns -- gatlinburg, tn being one of those. i could continue the rant, but surely you know what i'm talking about. crappy little nick-nac stores. air brush t-shirts. chain restaurants. 'as seen on tv' stores. pancake houses. just not my thing.

however, thanks to an awesome deal on groupon & the charming idea of staying in a bed and breakfast, ben and i found ourselves at the blue mountain mist country inn, right outside of gatlinburg, for our anniversary weekend getaway. it was the quaint-est little southern charm-iest place i've ever been. i'm talking doilies on every surface, tons of patch work quilts, fancy mismatched china, christian literature on every bookshelf -- everything you'd imagine a southern b&b to have. and we loved it. coffee and sweet tea were always available, as well as a 'temptation station' that was filled with yummy desserts all day and night. our breakfasts were a-mazing -- quiche, pumpkin pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, stuffed french toast, fresh fruit. i know, it sounds like heaven!

we had our own little house {our reservations were lost so they upgraded us from a cottage to a house, no complaints here!} with a cozy fireplace, a front porch, and a balcony with an beautiful view. 

 

it was such a nice weekend. i loved getting a change of scenery for a bit. breathing fresh mountain air. cozying up by a fire. appreciating the beauty of the mountains. and, especially, spending time with my husband. 

we give this mini-getaway four kerr thumbs up.

fill in the blank friday.

1.   My favorite new blog of the moment is    little band of brothers   .

2.   Something I am thankful for is  all the beautiful fall trees around my apartment complex right now. they make me so happy every time i drive in    .

3.  Something that made me laugh this week was    one of my students at lunch saying "remember, mrs. kerr does not like to talk about blood at lunch" when i sat down to eat with them. they know me so well.

4. An item that is currently on my wish list is    a coffee mate espresso maker. a little coffee shop just for me sitting on the corner of my counter   .

5.  I am excited about   for my friend (and sister-in-law-to-be),katie, to get married next weekend - something about two people that are so right for each other and are so happy together getting married makes me warm and fuzzy inside  .

6.  If I were a color I would be    yellow  .

7.  My favorite way to spend a chilly fall day is by    going on an adventure with ben, who knows what that would entail  .

linking up @ the little things we do.

a christmas debate. where do you stand?

enough with the mushy, sweet posts. ben an i have some serious problems.

there's this debate going on at my house. {okay, not really in my house, it's just in my head because ben will agree to whatever i choose}

do we buy a real christmas tree

or

a fake, pre-lit christmas tree?

see, i like this idea of going to a tree farm. i can see us trudging through the snow in boots, scarves and hats {dreaming, okay?} to pick out a cute little tree that needs a home. we would be drinking hot chocolate and eating candy canes. we'd get home and our house would smell like christmas tree and i would take all those little branches from the bottom and do something cute with them. i'm sure we'd end the night by watching a charlie brown christmas or it's a wonderful life. doesn't that sound like the christmas dream?

on the other hand, i'm afraid our apartment will catch on fire and burn to the ground if we have a real tree. you hear all those crazy stories and there's always that one fireman that warns everyone not to buy a real tree. most people don't listen, but i'm pretty gullible and i get scared easily. is a house fire really a possibility if we buy a real tree? am i getting all worked up over nothing? i risked it last year with a real tree, should i just suck it up and do it again?

and that is the end of my pro's and con's weighing. on one hand: nice christmas experience with hot chocolate and a smelly good house OR waking up to a home that has not burnt to the ground on christmas morning.

decisions. decisions. 

feel free to weigh in on this one. 

{i think i'll go eat my leftover anniversary dessert now. chocolate always helps me think.}

the anniversary date.

our anniversary date was simple, fun and very ben-&-jordyn-esque.

we had talked about going out somewhere fancy, like ruth's chris or canoe, getting all dressed up, and ordering something special like lobster or filet mignon.

but then ben asked me last week where i wanted to go and all i could think about was this amazingly delicious white pizza we had at fellini's just a few weeks ago with his parents. 

so our big anniversary date was just good ol' pizza at fellini's. 

and you know what, it was just perfect. 

we made a quick stop at donna van goghs to pick up our anniversary gift to each other.

a painting of the street where we got engaged. it wasn't anything super romantic and we decided not to do surprises, but i like that we can hang it up in our house and tell our kids one day "that's where mom & dad got engaged!" yep, i'm a sap for those kinds of things. and it's so appropriate for our "paper" anniversary.

then we headed to virginia highlands for coffee but found ourself at this adorable little gelato place. i mean, when i saw the word 'gelato' we had no other option. we walked around with our peach and hazelnut gelatos and visited a few stores on the street {including paper source which by the way has all their amazing christmas eye candy out already}.

i made ben take this picture with me because the tree was so beautiful {it's a little crooked because i put the camera on the hood of ben's car and self-timered the thing}

we ended the date at barnes and noble {still going along with the paper theme!} and eventually we made it back home.

what a great night with my favorite man!

happy one year, to the best husband in the whole world!

favorites from a year ago.

thirteen lessons from one year of marriage.

{alright fine, it's not been a year yet but we're five days away & i'm pretty excited}

1. resisting the urge to buy smartphones {and oh boy is it hard} has saved us some serious cash {but oh boy is it hard}.

2. ben’s side of the bed cannot be seen upon entering our bedroom which means all of his messiness is hidden which means a lot less grumpies from me. win. win.

3. ben will always choose to buy in bulk. i will always insist that we don’t have room to store that many {insert item you buy in bulk here, ex: paper towels, toilet paper etc.} but he almost always wins because the price is right. meaning, you may find toilet paper and paper towels in strange places around our house.

4. dating just keeps getting better. cheap dates are even better – biking, fro-yo, coffee, cupcakes, walking, hiking – it’s all awesome-sauce {i’ll give you a dollar if you know the reference}.

5. study time makes the heart grow fonder.

6. i would move a hundred million miles to anywhere with ben kerr just because he did {almost} all the bidding as far as calling gas companies, electric companies, internet companies, changing our address for other companies. i think if there was a proverbs 31 husband, he would do all these things.

7. being serenaded by your husband is not so rare in this house.

8. i think i will always get a little bit giddy when i find ben’s stash of all the little notes i leave him. 

9. the trash is not for women to take out. don’t even try. also, ben must pick out the garbage bags or else i’ll live with 52 bags worth of disappointment when the edge of each one falls down into the can. lesson learned.

10. in the winter, a husband is the perfect foot warmer. That spot right behind his knees + my cold feet. perfect.

11. things that belong to my husband that are not for sharing: deodorant (too man smelly). socks (woah, itchy). car (dang stick shift)

12. things that belong to my husband that I can share: shirts (big and cozy). toothbrush (judge me, but sometimes you’re in a bind) & sweetwater blue (holy cow blueberry-ish beer?!)

13. it’s not even fair that I get to spend fifty plus more years with this man. again with the awesome-sauce. {know where it’s from, yet? one of mine and ben’s favorite shows…)