A Christmas to Remember

Here is one story from this past Christmas that I hope will bring you some laughs. It was a Christmas that I will never forget.Ryan and I traveled to south Florida to stay with his parents for a week. We had some great adventures while we there.We went to Disney World, to the beach and went sailing. Here is the account from the day of one of our sailing adventures:

 After opening presents and taking family Christmas pictures the immediate Van Zee family decided to go sailing. It was a bit cold but a nice day for sailing. We were having a great time sailing and we had even seen dolphins for the second time this week. Ryan's dad let me drive the boat and everything seemed to be going well for the first few minutes and then just as we were getting ready to turn to head back in, we hit the ground! Yes, our boat became grounded and I just happen to be driving. We tried everything  but we had to face the hard truth that the boat was not going anywhere and neither were we.

After a few calls to friends, Ryan's dad got some of his buddies to come out to try to rescue us. About an hour after we grounded the boat we see this tiny pontoon boat coming to help us. It was kind of comical at first but then the reality sunk in that yes this is really happening and yes that is the boat that is going to take us back in.

We all piled on to the flat top pontoon boat and started our slow ride back in to the yacht club. Our rescue boat actually began to sink in our last 5 minutes of the ride!  The guys were super nice that came out to get us and even had hot chocolate waiting for the kids back at the bar of the club. We were able to have good attitudes about it and took the opportunity to take lots of pictures and even laugh a little. I know we will laugh even more about this in the years to come.

Thankfully,they were able to get the boat out the next morning. I know this will be something that the family will not let me live down for a long time or ever!  What a great Christmas memory!

Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Nashville got a couple of inches of snow Sunday night and there is still snow on the ground today! Here are just a few pictures of my house and what it looked like out my window.

Merry Christmas!

Handmade Treasures for Christmas Gifts

Tis the season for buying gifts for family and friends or for a white elephant or dirty santa game.  If you are like me you may find yourself at a loss for what to buy and I hate buying the same ole things year after year. So instead of a gift card or scarf, I bought this lovely candle holder for a gift exchange. After purchasing it, I was reminded of how handmade gifts are a great idea and sometimes overlooked in this busy season. The picture is a handmade sugar cone candle holder made from recycled pieces of a piano. My co-worker's husband made this piece. I want to encourage you that if you find yourself in the same place as me and want something unique and one of a kind, to skip the mall and go out to a local craft or antique store and purchase something that is handmade. I am sure your family and friends will love their handmade gift! You can also shop on etsy.com to buy handmade treasures from all over!!

AHHHHHHH!

So planning a wedding and a looking for a house at the same time make for an interesting and life. This morning has been productive though, I have recruited Dede Scheibe to help me with decorating the barn( I want my house to look like hers one day!) and also as the "day of coordinator" for the wedding. She has never done it before but I know she will do great. She works here in Franklin for a well known wedidng planner and has been like a mom to me since I moved her four years ago. She is awesome!

Ryan and I went to look at houses again yesterday with Rick. We looked at four houses. There were two that were alright and would work but neither of us had the moment where we thought and said out loud, "This is the one!!" Does that really happen when you find the house you really love? I hope so! I would love to have that feeling of this will be our first house together.

Then after dinner we sat down to look online for some more house and found some more options to look at that are farther out in the country. I know Rick loves us since we send him in a different direction each day it seems like. We just don't know what area we want to live in here. Hopefully we will find the right house soon!

Hope you all got a chance to see some of my engagement pics in the last post. They are pretty amazing! Kristin did a great job!

Engagement Pictures!

Here is the link to some of our engagement pictures taken by my wonderful and talented friend Kristin Sweeting.
I also need to mention it was snowing yesterday so you may see some tiny snowflakes on me or in my hair. We had a lot of fun and are exctited about all that is to come in the next few months.



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