Tag Archives: Holiday

December 25, 2016
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Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from the Gummermans! We are up in Pittsburgh with my family this morning and later today we are going to open the envelope from our sonogram and find out if that baby that’s been kicking me is a boy or girl—AGGGHHHHHIMSOEXCITED!!!!!

Wishing you and your family love and peace that extends far into 2017. Merry Christmas!!
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December 22, 2016
10 Comments

Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town

Only a few more days until Christmas! I just wanted to share a few shots with you from our Christmas decorating night earlier this month and show you what our holiday home has looked like lately. Putting up the tree with Sinatra singing and hot chocolate in hand is always one of my favorite nights of the year and hanging pretty ornaments under soft Christmas light is so cathartic for some magical reason.

I love the 60’s Corvette Stingray light-up sign that I made for the mantel this year—it turned out just how I pictured it in my head! I still use a lot of the holiday DIYs that I’ve made in past years too like my gold leather stockings, kitty paw stockings, and diamond ornaments so it’s like bringing out old friends to mix in with some new goodies.
The peppermint schnapps is just for Todd, so don’t freak out ok!! I got extra whipped cream though… Belly shot! Finally found a cool manger scene that matches my decor—it’s harder to find than you’d think! I went to Israel for almost a month to complete my Master of Theology back in 2011 and while it’s amusing to point out all the theological inaccuracies in classic American Christmas manger scenes (well, amusing to Theology nerds that is), the memories of seeing first century Jewish homes are always fresh in my mind as I picture the first Christmas night. We have Todd’s ornaments from when he was a kid but I usually hang them on the fridge or display them somewhere else since they don’t match the tree scheme. Feels a little exclusive but my Mom is the sweetest lady on earth and she did (and still does) the same thing to us with our ornaments! All the ones made of popsicle sticks had a different holiday home for the season… We usually get a fun holiday ornament at our A Beautiful Mess Christmas party each year and this time I got a pink drill and Todd received a monkey playing video games—both perfect choices! Christmas decor is such a bright spot for me in the middle of winter. Can I leave all this up until summer? PLEASE??

xo. Laura

December 3, 2015
20 Comments

Deck the Halls

Hot chocolate. Christmas music. Twinkle lights. What’s not to love? I don’t usually decorate for Christmas before December 1st, but blogger Christmas comes earlier every year so now I have to bring out the decorations a week or so before Thanksgiving and get the party started a little sooner than I normally would. Todd feels a bit Grinchy about Christmas cheer too early, but I put him in charge of the hot chocolate so I think that helped to lift the spirits a bit…
Of course the kitties were on hand to help. And by “help” I mostly mean gnaw on the tree a bit and bat at ornaments.Two years ago I bought a white pre-lit Christmas tree, and even though I grew up with live trees, I really do love how the white looks in our space (and all the lights are evenly spaced every time—a perfectionist’s dream!).Mac has this thing with burrowing under rugs…what a weirdo.Every Pittsburgh girl dreams of a pierogie ornament, am I right?? Todd got this for me from one of those Sky Mall catalogs. I think most people buy them as jokes, but I think it’s SO GOOD!
This diamond ornament was one of the first DIY projects I did as a full time author on ABM two years ago. I pack them really carefully each year because they are one of my favorite ornaments.
Last year was the first time we used a tree skirt and as soon as I laid it down, the cats made it their new nap spot. Looks like this year is no different!Well, that’s one big decoration down but I still have a few more things I’m planning on making to add to the festive cheer. Are you doing any holiday DIY projects that you are excited about??
xo. Laura

January 6, 2015
8 Comments

Cheers to 2015!

As I said, I loved being home with my family for Christmas. By the time we got back to MO though we only had about 24 hours to repack and head up to Kansas City to have a major friend reunion with some of our favorite people alive. That particular group of friends hasn’t all been together in 5 years or so and our stomach muscles were hurting because the LPM (laughs per minute) ratio was pretty off the charts. So much fun.

Speaking of fun, I recently did a collaboration with Women’s Health online magazine and I shared with them last week my favorite tips for having a luxurious NYE evening in. This approach is totally something I would recommend for any date night when you feel lazy and it’s too cold to venture outside (which is pretty much every night around here lately…).Hope you guys had a fun New Year’s Eve! I can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store!signature


1 Comment

Cheers to 2015!

As I said, I loved being home with my family for Christmas. By the time we got back to MO though we only had about 24 hours to repack and head up to Kansas City to have a major friend reunion with some of our favorite people alive. That particular group of friends hasn’t all been together in 5 years or so and our stomach muscles were hurting because the LPM (laughs per minute) ratio was pretty off the charts. So much fun.

Speaking of fun, I recently did a collaboration with Women’s Health online magazine and I shared with them last week my favorite tips for having a luxurious NYE evening in. This approach is totally something I would recommend for any date night when you feel lazy and it’s too cold to venture outside (which is pretty much every night around here lately…).Hope you guys had a fun New Year’s Eve! I can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store!signature