Its About to be the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Well, it has been a great morning. In English class today, I took my Kate Spade:Style with me because we were watching a movie but obviously reading a Kate Spade book tops any educational video that I may be forced into watching. My teacher is just very old and so he fell asleep 15 minutes into the movie. I spent my 11 oclock hour reading about little black dresses, Lilly Pulitzer, and beautiful overcoats.
While I am talking about clothes, please look at this adorable tweed coat from J Crew that my mother snagged on ebay! I am so excited about this! I have a yellow tweed coat that I absolutely love to wear with all of my black dresses, jeans, anything! It is just beautiful. Now I will have one in pink too!
My style is very simple. I prefer dresses over anything because it is one piece, and one piece can say so much! I love little black day dresses, especially when paired with a tweed coat. Just a beautiful outfit. So Classic!
I love to wear black, white, and Lilly. If I wear a color, it is most likely Lilly Pulitzer, otherwise black is my best color. Although, I have found that hot pink is a good color on me too! I also love red! I am a fan of classic clothes, and I do not go with normal trends. Every day I am usually found in either a pair of black leggings with a north face, or a polo sweatshirt with my hair pulled in a low pony tail, ribbon optional! OR, I am wearing a day dress, with a coat. Usually this time of year I like to pair tights and a scarf (preferably the Burberry scarf that I found while on my NYC trip!) with my dresses and suits. I wish I was a princess so that I could wear a classic dress, or suit every day for the rest of my life! Who needs anything else? One thing that I am absolutely dying to add to my wardrobe and wear until the end of time would be a kelly green, black, or hot pink Burberry quilted coat. I am just dying for one but I cannot spend $325 on a jacket for myself, because first off I do not have a steady job, and secondly I would feel so guilty! I have been looking on e-bay, because maybe someday I will buy it. I don't want my parents to buy it for me, because I doubt that would happen, and I feel like that is something that I should buy for myself because it is such a ridiculous purchase!

On to my next topic of conversation: Christmas Gifts!
I am planning to buy wonderful Christmas gifts for my family this year, we have all had quite the year and they all deserve the world! I just wish I had a way to give it to them! In reality, my parents will as always make Christmas an absolute dream come true! They always get us what we ask for, and Christmas is always a great day to wake up in the morning! In my imagination, however, I would love to be able to buy each member of my family a gift but since I really do not have a job with the exception of babysitting, my funds are limited unless I were to tell my parents my plan! I have these extravagant gifts that I would love to give to each member of my family, maybe one day when I take Kelly Ripa's place and become a multi millionaire, I will do it! My dream gift to my amazing mother would be a new sports car, or maybe a beach house! Realistically, I would love to get her some beautiful jewelry this year! My dad, hes always wanted socks from me...they always make him happy, I think because hes always in his suit so socks from Brooks Brothers this year! My brother is always happy with gift cards, but I would love to be able to give him something really cool like some Brooks Brothers Oxfords. Maybe a pink, and blue. My sister, shes easy! I am getting her a giftcard from a store in Cameron Village!! Thats what she has requested this year!
My parents have always taken such good care of my brother, sister, and I since we were born obviously, but each Christmas they always make us so happy! Since turning 20 I would love to be able to buy them gifts as a surprise because I think it would be great to spend my own money and buy them all something cute! Usually every one makes a list and we all go get each other what we want. Its fun!
I cannot wait for Project Santa to start!
Project Santa is this organization that my grandfather started 51 years ago this year! It is truly amazing, and I have been counting down since New Years because I am just so excited about it!
It usually begins after Thanksgiving. That is when my father and grandfather begin checking out families and going to schools in the county that we help out. We do this until mid December. We meet some adorable kids, and you know some of the parents are awful parents, but some of them truly are good people who just hit a bump in the road. Each year I truly enjoy getting to know each one of them even better!
After we check out all of the families, the process begins!!
See, Food Lion was founded in my hometown and they are so sweet because they always donate thousands of dollars in food each year! It really pays to know people! They give hams and turkeys! The day that truck pulls into the little church in Denton is the day the fun begins! After the truck comes and drops off the food, we always get a group picture in front of it with the sweet driver! I remember leaving high school, driving to Denton for this picture, then going back to school! For at least three days after the truck comes, we begin assembling food and fruit boxes! This is not my favorite part, but its alright! The boxes line the halls of the church, as well as the daycare room which we take over every year! It is really amazing to see hoe quickly this work gets done, and it is a sight to see when all of those boxes line the hallways! You can just feel the warmth and know that by assembling just one box a needy family will be blessed with food at Christmas time!
Everyone that helps with anything to do with Project Santa is a volunteer, and it is always the same wonderful faces every year ready to work hard and have fun, while catching up from the year we have all been apart! I love that I see some of these faces once a year, but I have seen them every year since I was 5!
After we finish food boxes, we go and deliver them to each family or they come pick them up. Sometimes, the line is out the door and I recognize all of those faces too! It is so fun to see everyone, and talk to them about how things are going. The children are always ready to "see Santa!". Each year, some of the families have a new baby, or a new story to tell, and I am always ready to listen! Sometimes they feel guilty, but I tell them "honey it is a win win situation, we get to help you at Christmas, and it makes my year to be able to work on Project Santa!".
Last year was the trademark year in the life of Project Santa! It was the 50th year, and it was HUGE. My father and grandfather are the exact opposite of me because they HATE any kind of attention! Regardless, Our State Magazine came and did a piece on Project Santa while we were making all of the food boxes! It was great, my dad and I got a picture and that was the last time I remember him being all put-together before he had a rough year that year! He has a way of exhibiting a very professional attitude even if he is having a bad day.
About the week before Christmas, my cousins, brother, sister, dad, grandfather, mom, and the Biscoe's (two HILARIOUS people who help out a lot) all go to the Wal-Mart in Thomasville and fill up carts until the toy isle is BARE! It is so so so much fun! I just throw CD's, DVD's, baby dolls, bikes, games, toys, make-up kits, any and everything a child could want into these buggies! People in the store just stare at us. One time we had 10 carts in line within the first hour, and this guy says to my friend "how many kids you got?" He said "500" because thats how many we have every year! The guy was a little taken back and didn't understand! haha.
After we go to Wal-Mart we go back to the church and unload everything! I hate that part too, so I usually take my "lunch break". In case you cant tell, manual labor just isn't one of my top qualities.
Anyways, i'm going to get to the best part because y'all can't read this blog all day!!
CHRISTMAS EVE! I am kind of love hate on this one because I know that in a sense families should be at home Christmas Eve and I feel guilty about not being home, but wait until you hear this!
Last year because it was 50 years, all kinds of reporters came out! Well, Channel 12 didn't bring one, and at the time I was a Religious Studies major not even considering reporting, it was merely a dream! I asked the camera guy if I could please help in some way! He let me put together a whole package on Project Santa! I got to interview numerous families, hold the stick mic, and record footage with my voice over. It was wonderful! That night was the night that I knew I wanted to be a reporter for the rest of my life!
Anyways, but most Christmas Eve's are not like that! Usually, I am an Elf, and I go with a Santa (a man volunteer who dresses up!) We usually have 12 Santa's. Anyways, so we get in a van and go on our route. The routes are made up by my very patient, skilled parents! My mom and dad do it every year and are so good at it! Its a pain, i'm sure, but they come out strong! So when we get to a house, the Elf's get the box and follow Santa inside to make a child's Christmas dreams come true! When we get inside, it is most always a very sad situation. I do recall one time, little Junior wanted to show me "his special friend". I said sure, where is he/she. AHHH OUT COMES JUNIORS PET SNAKE! It absolutely scared me to death! Another time, it was raining outside, and Santa gets out and is yelling HO HO HO, and out comes little Bubba a cute 7 year old boy and hes yelling SANTA!! He is so large, that he tackled Santa in the mud! HILARIOUS, but what a memory! The last time that comes to mind was when we went to a house with beautiful twin girls! Santa was giving them a hug, but they kept trying to pull his beard, so he said "go hug the elves" Well they come over to us, and are just everywhere so we are like go open your presents! Their mother told us as we left that the girls had a pending case of head lice!!!!! AHHHH, my word, no warning! Luckily, none of us got it but its things like that that I always remember! They make me laugh!
Christmas Eve is the best part, but it goes by so fast! Its a good months worth of work for about 3 hours on Christmas Eve. Christmas wouldn't be the same without Project Santa for me, its wonderful!

A few days before Christmas we go and see my mothers side of the family. It is always so much fun! My grandmother makes the best food! Then, we all open presents and go on a walk after lunch! My cousins are really cute because they are a lot younger so we always play soccer in the yard after our walk! I don't get to see them that often because we live a little ways apart so when I do see them, it always brings a smile. I wish we all lived like 30 minutes from each other, I would love to be able to see them more often. The thing with my mothers side of the family, is that we all have very busy lives which is also a good thing!

I am so excited, because I think that my mother is going to have Thanksgiving at our house this year! I love doing that because it is an all day affair! Her decorations are out of this world, and the food is amazing! I always claim to be carrying "Holiday Weight" for at least 3 months after the fact because I EAT SO MUCH! I'm looking forward to it!

Do any of you have any Christmas Traditions?

Have a great Wednesday!

Do any of you have any fun traditions on Christmas