Where do I begin with what 2010 was for me.  I started 2010 in such a fog. Last New Years Eve I buried my dad and was planning his memorial service.  The fog that started the did not lift until the spring.  Then a health bomb went off and I did not feel like myself until August.

I was able to encounter all of the firsts without my dad.  A day did not go by without me thinking of him and missing him.  Each day got a little easier and the firsts were not so bad.

The laughter that we had during Christmas made me love my family even more.

This time last year we never thought we would get through this year. We did and we survived it.

We can not wait to see what 2011 has in store for us. 

As I promised here are the pictures of the outside of our house.   We got snow last Saturday so we took the best pictures of our house with the lights and snow. ENJOY!

The house in the day time

Rocky enjoying the snow.

The house at night

I can't not believe we are in December.  I am super excited about having all of my Christmas decorations out.  When Cameron and I got married and started spending the holidays together we began to mold both of our traditions together. One of his traditions was to get the tree on Thanksgiving or the Friday after.  Mom and I went out shopping on Friday at 6:15am after a successful Thanksgiving dinner the night before.  We were back by 10 and off we went to get the tree. 

We had the tree up by 12:00 that day. We were all tired from the day before and getting up early so we started the decorating on Saturday. Cameron brought all of the decorations down and while Mom and I decorated the inside and Cameron did the outside (pictures of the outside to come later).  Then on Sunday Cameron and I decorated the tree while we watched Christmas movies.

Cameron and I do have a lot of decorations and we have some meaningful ones too. We have a ceramic tree that took his grandmother weeks to make. We have the homemade wood reindeer that Granddaddy Jones made, the ceramic nativity set my mom made with a homemade manger by Granddaddy Jones.  We have Nanny and Papaw's train to go around the tree and their moving characters.  We also have ornaments from each side of the family.  Then we have our collections we are starting from the Dickens Snow Village, to my Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer collection, to my Santa collection, and the 12 days of Christmas and Christmas Carol carolers.

What are some of your favorite decorations?

Our Christmas Tree

Our fireplace and mantle

Right side of bookcase

Left side of Bookcase

Its hard to see but these are the moveable Characters that were my grandparents

My Rudolph collection

Nativity set in my dining room

I can not believe we are already into November.  Normally fall has not been my favorite season but this year we have had great weather. We had the best October in I don't know when.  I am loving the smell of Pumpkin Spice courtesy of Yankee Candle and pumpkin trees. They have become a new obsession. Cameron and I are thinking about trying to grow some next year.

I don't have as many fall decorations as I do Halloween and Christmas.  The one thing I really want is some really pretty fall garland. 

Here are pictures of some of the fall decorations I have for my family room and dining room.

Aren't the pumpkin trees adorable?

Once our summer garden began to dry up Cameron and I began to think of what we wanted to plant next.  We decided to plant turnips, turnip greens, collard greens, leafy lettuce, spinach, and an assortment of fall squash.  I think it is turning out pretty good so far. I can't wait to be able to harvest everything.

Our fall/winter garden

So far November has been kind of boring for us. It took us a couple of days to get over the Halloween party.  I came down with an ear infection and Cameron is battling a horrible cold.  I pray that I don't catch it. I have been sick enough this past year.  I went to my first Duke game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Thursday.  I got rid of NC State basketball tickets so we could get Duke season tickets.  It was quite an experience being in Cameron indoor.  So life has been pretty boring but we have an exciting few weeks ahead of us. Have a great Sunday!

Happy Halloween everyone!  The Santana household is pretty exhausted this Halloween morning.  We had our 2nd Annual Halloween Party.  It was a big success. We had over 30 people come. We had 4 different Keg beers, meatballs, chicken tenders, wings, jalapeno dip, marinated cheese, 7 layer dip, cheese ball, and bruschetta. Kim made some scrumptious cupcakes for us.  It was all delicious if I do say so myself.  The last guest left around 2:30 or 3 this morning.  Just by that I would say everyone had a good time.

Mom and Papaw have been here for the last couple of weeks.  Mom has been helping me all week preparing for the party. She decided after the invitations were sent out to make prizes for several categories. Here are the costumes that won:

Ring toss game ( funniest)
NC State Werewolf ( Scariest)
A Pumpkin and Peter Peter ( Kids book, Peter Peter Pumpkin eater) Best couple
Male Tinkerbell- Best overall

I think Cameron's and my costume will speak for themselves. Mom went as Paula Deen and Papaw went as Popeye. 

What are you going as for Halloween?

Enjoy the pictures!

Wet T-Shirt Contest Winner and Anita Waxin

Wet Tshirt Contest Winner and Popeye

Food

Food Again

Food 3

My mom, Paula Deen, and me.  Thanks Mom for all of your help with the party!

I have posted 3 entries today so be sure to read all of them. This is the third one.

Ok... so we don't have kids yet but, we do have the best dog.  Now that my foot is healed. We decided to take Rocky to the lake yesterday so he could swim.  He played with 2 sticks the whole time. Here is are some pictures below.  I just love bragging on him. =)

He finally got both sticks at the same time.  It is the little things in life that makes us and Rocky happy.

If you know me well then you know that I love to decorate for the holidays. I grew up in a house that decorated for every holiday.  Cameron and I have decorations for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  When we got married one of my bridal showers was even a holiday theme.

When Cameron was growing up his favorite holiday with his brother was Halloween. As soon as October 1st hit we were ready to decorate the inside and outside of our house for Halloween.  Here are the pictures below.

The Inside:

Bookcase 1

Bookcase 2

Dining room buffet with the pumpkins that mom made in the 70's.

Curio cabinet

Witch mom made in the 70's

The living room

The Outside:

The whole house

The front porch with our carved pumpkins

Cameron's Scooby Doo

The Pumpkin made to look like Rocky

My princess punokin

My sweet boy and me. I think Rocky is the hands down best dog ever! =)