a review of 2009.

I love celebrating New Years. It is such a wonderful time of reviewing what the past year brought to us, and a chance to be excited and set goals for the new one.

This year has been an amazing one. There has been a lot of change that has taken place this year...change isn't always easy...but it's good. We've had lots of adventures, shared laughter with friends, and spent time with our family.

2009, you are a favorite.

Here are some favorite moments of this year:

• we launched this blog.
• we made cupcakes.
• max enjoyed his first snowfall.
• we went on a weekend adventure to Gatlinburg {here, here, and here}

• max played with a balloon.
• we celebrated birthdays {his & hers.}
• we took lots of pictures of max.
• our niece, Kate, was born!

• we went to Chick-fil-a in our pajamas to get free food.
• i made cards and sold them in my shop {which is empty at the moment, but I am still taking custom orders.} :)
• we enjoyed time with each other, family, and friends.
• i declared my secret love of star trek, and went to see the movie.
• we ate lots of pizza and went to drive-in movies.

• dreams were dreamed.
• we adventured in Atlanta.
• snow cones were eaten.
• husband had his senior guitar recital! {you can watch clips of it here}
• we celebrated two years of wedded bliss.
• husband graduated from college!

• we vacationed at the beach.
• we announced some big news and changes in our life.
• we moved to Nashville!
• dreams were pursued.

• new favorite restaurants were discovered.
• my sister came to visit.
• we played games.
• we went to the state fair.

• some of our best friends got engaged.
• we went to the pumpkin patch.
• i shot my first wedding.
• we hosted Thanksgiving for the first time {and I made my first turkey!}
• we spent time with family.

• the Tiffany Zajas Photography website was launched!
• we admired Christmas lights at Opryland.
• we baked cookies.
• we drank hot chocolate and decorated a gingerbread house.
• we celebrated Christmas in our new home.

I'm so thankful for all that God has done this past year, and for all that He has in store for 2010.

I'd love to hear what your favorite moments from 2009 are!

Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas from our little family to yours! We hope you're having a wonderful, joyous day filled with laughter and time spent with loved ones. :)

Let's not forget the true reason for the season. Here's the true meaning of Christmas, according to Charlie Brown:

our home all decorated for Christmas.

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is how warm and cozy the house looks and feels. Here's a little glimpse into what the Zajas home looks like right now...

click on image to enlarge.

Growing up, my family always had the tradition of getting one new ornament each Christmas that represented something from that year. Now, at my parents' house the tree tells our family's life story. Jonathan and I started doing this tradition for our own little family, and we love it.

This ornament is from our first Christmas together as a married couple.

This is last year's ornament--celebrating when Max joined our family.

It took us forever to find an ornament for this year, because apparently no one sells Nashville ornaments (at least none that we liked and that didn't have the Predators on it.) So we found this magnet at a gift store and turned it into an ornament. :) Hot glue gun to the rescue!

Our Christmas tree.

You can see that we wrapped the frames on the wall behind the tree. This was something my mom did at Christmastime when I was a kid, and we've found it to be an inexpensive way to make the room more festive!

I tried to be a little creative with my wrapping this year, and I had SO much fun with it! I used Kraft paper, red ribbon, and an old atlas to spruce up husband's packages this year. (He wrapped mine in Kraft paper and twine, which I think is simple and beautiful as well.)

Being a Maine native myself, I can't help but love Moose. They are such beautiful and majestic creatures. One year, as my family was sitting down for dessert, a Moose came and looked into our dining room window. haha, such a fun childhood memory! We always joke that it would've been even funnier if the dessert we were having was chocolate mousse. :)

Santa Spud is sporting a slightly different look this year.

(I think we have my brother and sisters to thank for this.) :)

I made this Merry Christmas garland out of normal white printer paper and some white string. I attached the letters to the string by folding a piece of scotch tape over the top of the letters with the string in between. Very very simple and cheap!

Even Max is all dressed up and ready to celebrate!

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I hope you're all relaxing and enjoying this time with your families.

have yourself a very pretty Christmas.

I'm sitting in my living room right now admiring our pretty Christmas tree and snuggling with our puppy. Simple moments like these make me so happy.

I can't help but share these pretty Christmas images with you that I've found around the web:

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I hope you all are having a very pretty, inspired, and joyful Christmastime! I'm loving every moment of it. :)

a night of gingerbread house decorating and hot chocolate drinking.

After running to Target and Hobby Lobby last night to get some kraft paper and twine for gift wrapping, husband and I made some hot chocolate and decorated our gingerbread house!

These are our favorite Christmas mugs. They put me in the Christmas spirit.

And you've gotta have some vanilla creamer and whipped cream in your hot chocolate.

Makes it healthy for you.

Time to construct our house!

Candy is so pretty to photograph, really.

The finished product!

It's really starting to feel like Christmas around here...and I am SOOOOO excited! Today is husband's last day of work before his 10 day vacation. We're going to have lots of fun together. I love vacations! Jonathan has been trying to convince me that we should pretend that tomorrow is Christmas, so we can celebrate a day early. I have to admit, it is rather tempting...I really can't wait to give him his gifts!

Merry Christmas Adam, everyone! (that's what my brother and sisters came up with for the day before Christmas Eve...since Adam was created first...haha!) :)