Christmas Timeeee!

Guys, it is FINALLY Christmas time! I am so incredibly excited! What an amazing way to end the year. So much happiness, so much joy everywhere!

I realize that I already posted about making Christmas cookies with Gigi but realized I never posted any pictures! So here are our masterpieces!

Oatmeal chocolate peanut butter drop cookies!

We baked all day and Sasha only managed to run off with one sick of butter😂.

Now onto Christmas decorations! So here in the Raborn house, we put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving...immediately. It is very important to put the tree up right away to enjoy it as long as possible, but not before Thanksgiving. You know how the saying goes, every tree lit before Thanksgiving, an elf drowns a baby reindeer. We don't want that happening. 

Here is the rest of the decor around the apartment! If you can't tell already, polar bears are my favorite animal and they are all over my apartment!

And like last year, here are our custom made stockings that I had made for us the year we were engaged. I love them so much and you bet we will be ordering some for our kids one day! So fun!

Some more new decor! I love the hot coco smelling candle and the cute little picture of Cody as a kid.  And yes in the background that is a Starbucks cup. I got one of the Christmas cups and colored in the design! It was a fun little craft! In the waaaay back we have our 'Be Merry' plank from our aunt Laurie for Christmas last year (which we LOVE) and we bought that cute little towel on our oven that says 'Best time of year" from Target. 

I purchased some fake snow from our anniversary trip in Gatlinburg this summer and I am so excited to use it! 

Here is a further away view of our tree. It's not a very tall tree but it's full of love :). 

We got this angel from Gatlinburg at Christmas time last year. It is so majestic and gorgeous. This year we plant to get a nativity scene and the following year an advent wreathe, and the following year, a Christmas countdown. 

 And the really cool thing about being married and our own family, is creating your own traditions. I talked a little about that last year. This year Cody and I really enjoyed hanging up the ornaments we had collected over the past 6 1/2 years and how each ornament kind of tells a story; each has a special meaning. If you are interested, keep scrolling below!

This ornament is one of Cody and I's favorite. I got it for Cody for our third Christmas together. It is a wooden cross which has the story of Jesus carved into it. 

This is our most prized ornament. We had full intentions to get this in Gatlinburg during our actual first Christmas married last year but the Christmas Shoppe was a zoo. We decided to come back for our anniversary and did just that. We waited in zero lines. It was so special to get a customized ornament for us to keep on our tree until we are 90+ years old. I just love it so much. (The bears are just so precious!)

I made this ornament for Cody last year for him to open for Christmas. It is something very special to us to have our first apartment. While I was still in school Cody looked around for a long time to find the perfect place for us and get our name on the list. We were lucky enough to snag a ground-level apartment in the coolest apartment complex in the area. AND  Cody got to move in 3 months before the wedding which was a dream for planning and setting up. 

This special ornament isn't actually an ornament at all. It is a little case and it was just so beautiful to not hang on the tree. It is a hand painted box of a horse that Gigi got me a few years ago for Christmas. 

This specific ornament was our first official ornament. This ornament was the first ornament I gave Cody on our first Christmas ever over 6 years ago!

This ornament we got as a present from our cousin Nathan. It is so special! He gave it to us as a wedding present and found it at Panama City Beach (our favorite place and honeymoon location). There is actually a twin ornament of this one that he gave us!

This ornament is so sweet! Our Nana (Dyar) gave it to us this year and it is a Santa with a Thomas Kinkade pained coat! So special! We love his work!

This ornament I think I showed last year. We made sure to collect sand from our honeymoon a year and a half ago to make into an ornament to remember what a special week that was and to see the gorgeous shells. 

These Mickey and Minnie ornaments were bought during out second part of our honeymoon in Disney! We absolutely HAD to have them!

These three ornaments have a special story to them. So the blue ornament with white stars on it represents me and Cody's love for stargazing (especially early on in our dating relationship) and how Nana gave it to me the summer I was going into college. I would always look at it when I was getting overwhelmed and felt instantly better, thinking of family and Cody who all cheer me on. The pine cone ornament I got from Cody two Christmas' ago. We always have a joke about pine cones with his dad ("You know what we haven't talked about in a while? Pine cones") So it always makes us laugh. And the Smokey ornament which you can't see very well to represent UT of course. 

The Starbucks cup represents our love for Starbucks and how many times we have gone over the past 6.5 years. 

We got this beautiful bride and groom ornament from Gigi two Christmas' ago and have had it on our tree ever since! So precious! 

The Coca-Cola polar bear and a tennis racket and tennis ball because tennis will be my sport for life!

The kitchen aid mixer ornament represents our love for cooking, specifically baking (ours is teal though).

And of course a little polar bear. I always like two similar polar bears on the tree so I am searching for this little guy a friend. 

This horse represents my love for horses and horseback riding. Oh how I miss it and the horses.

This ornament represents my dad and how every tree needs a 'glass-looking' ornament that is so perfectly placed and amplifies all of the lights in one area and can be seen from all angles of the room. So I tried my best to do the same. What do you think dad?

Also a very sweet lady I work with at Shaw gave me this sweet UT license plate ornament which I LOVE! It was a very sweet gift and so thoughtful!

What will be really fun in the future will be to see the ornaments we collect over the years when we have our first house, kids, grand kids, etc. The fun never stops!

This UT shirts says so much....we have been through a lot in the last 3 weeks. I am hopeful especially since Phillip Fulmer is our AD now.

On a totally unrelated note....

Dreaming of drinking this magical sounding tea.

And eating these delicious gingerbread chocolate pieces!😍😍😍 I've got food on the brain!

So have a very merry December and keep on the lookout for more blog posts about Christmasssss!!

Love,

Kayla Raborn

12-1-17

Incline Railway and Thanksgiving

We crossed another thing off of my bucket list for us!!!! When I met Cody almost 7 years ago, I realized how many things he hadn't experienced yet. So over the past 7 years I have taken him everywhere to experience all of these things such as the beach, corn mazes, Lake Winnie, Rock City, water parks, plane rides, putt-putt, etc., (next is a small cruise one day shhh). So one of the things Cody had never done/seen was the incline railway! So of course we had to jump on that right away! A few weekends ago we drove to the foot of Lookout Mountain and rode all the way up just swooning on the breathtaking views.

I hobbled on with my boot and enjoyed every second. Just look at those views!

Breathtaking fall view. I love my city so much. 

FINALLY! I got a selfie with Cody after half a year! He has COMPLETELY refused any type of picture now. It makes me so incredibly sad. All I can think about is when we have kids he wont be in any of the pictures or newborn pictures. Well that is a bridge to cross when we get there and could be used as a bribing tool when its time to start trying for kids ;) jk...kind of ;). 

Me and my boot!

Also over the weekend I also helped encourage Cody with his masters degree because he has been feeling pretty down about his work load and how busy he always is. So I created him a chain from start to finish for each month of his masters degree so each month that goes by he gets to tear off a chain. And I have to admit he was pretty excited to tear off the first 7 months he already has completed!

So it is time to get a haircut because I don't like the in-between look. I like it either short or long. And unfortunately you have to go through the in-between stage to get to the long hair but I decided to cut it short again before I grow it back out again fully for locks of love. I plan to do that over and over again for the rest of my life (until my hair doesn't grow out anymore from age).

My fall thanksgiving outfit! I never have a perfect thanksgiving outfit EVER, so I was really excited to find this!

My before picture 

What do you think? The finished product! I did go a little darker but it should balance out soon!

Back of hair. See it's still relatively long! :)

The weekend before Thanksgiving I drove to Knoxville to spend time with Mom, Morgan, Gigi, Granddad, and Sasha. I helped Gigi make her annual Christmas cookies! We baked all day while watching the UT v LSU game with our 'new' head coach😭 I don't even want to talk about all of the things that have been happening with UT and Butch. It hurts too much. My family is so sad.

And now, ON TO THANKSGIVING TIME!!!

So the Wednesday before Thanksgiving after work Cody and I went to his mom's house to help cook and prepare the Thanksgiving food (and taste test a little here and there ;)). Some of the absolutely delicious food my mother-in-law makes for Thanksgiving include her amazing crescent rolls, 'green stuff' (which is my favorite), mac n cheese (how awesome is that?!?), of course the turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, ham, cheese ball and crackers, chocolate covered nuts to snack on before the meal, sweet tea with an orange wedge, and lets not forget dessert! She makes this divine chocolate pie, and carrot cake! Her mom makes the deviled eggs, tea, and banana pudding (my favorite)! We have an absolute feast! And after we stuff our bellies we sit and talk and play some really fun board games together! I usually take a walk to visit the cows to walk off the food baby lol! Wow don't we have so much to be thankful for! And boy, am I thankful for not hosting Thanksgiving again like last year.😂

Part of the group

Finally got a picture!

Deep football talk with Papa :)

Macy's day parade! I have watched this every year and it is definitely one of my Thanksgiving highlights! (Especially since Spongebob was in it! ;))

All the delicious foods prepped and ready to be devoured!

Our walk to visit the cows to help our food digest, getting ready for dessert. The cows were very 'talkative' and fun to see!

The day after Thanksgiving I met my mom at the local greenway to walk. I of course had to take my scooter on long walks and I 100% scooted along. We had an absolute blast just chatting, catching up and just laughing. I have so much fun with my mama! It is so nice being with people who truly are interested in you and what you have to say. Family is the best!

Later that evening Cody and I started putting up our Christmas decorations and decided to create a new tradition of having a Raborn pizza movie night along side of our hot chocolate and Christmas music. Yes we did get two types of pizza and we may or may not have shared it with mom and Morgan 😂. And by the way, Pizza Hut's ultimate cheese crust pizza was the best pizza I have ever had in my life! It was so incredible! (Cody's favorite was the extra most bestest pizza from Little Caesars). 

Being able to spend so much time with my husband is so special and so rejuvenating. It is so nice to reconnect and have actual time together for what seems like the first time in half a year. Work keeps us busy!

Happy Holidays everyone! Enjoy your family time and I hope everyone is happy and doing well! 

Love,

Kayla 

11-12-17

P.S. Get ready for Christmas blogs!! Falalalala lalalalaaaaa! :)