Stateside

Y'all. I'm home.

Chances are most of you have already heard from me, but YES I made it home! My sweet Mom and Dad greeted me at the airport along with Delilah wearing her Christmas jingle bell collar. Dallas even welcomed me back with the cloudy and rainy weather that it knows I love so much.

The travelling went well, in all it was 23 hours from doorstep to doorstep, give or take an hour. Yikes, right? I struggled a bit with my luggage, because as you can see below, I had more than a couple bags. Granted, I checked two of them, but before I could check them, I traipsed (or rather trudged) around the airport with this leaning tower of luggage. At one point I walked backwards all the way through a terminal, trying to keep all my luggage stacked up straight. Quite a funny site. But not a funny site when it's 6:30 am. But on the bright side, I flew back to the States in style, sporting a chunky sweater, and matching my beloved Lindsey. Aaaaand 10 hours later I was on US soil, with a three hour layover (most of which was spent in passport control and customs) in Philadelphia.

me and my stack of luggage in the Rome Airport

loving our sweaters

just as I met up with my parents when I arrived at DFW

The next 24 hours were filled with what my Dad calls "Team Christmas" hard at work. My Mom and I bought the tree, put up the garland, put up the stockings, put up the tree, decorated the tree, set up the manger scenes, and basically Christmas-fied the house. If you know me you know I LOVE Christmas so this was just wonderful.

got the tree!

decorating. and LOVING it.

always a favorite.

As part of my Mom's Christmas present, my Dad and I got her tickets to Michael W. Smith's Christmas concert when he was in Dallas on Tueseday. We went to a Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant Christmas concert when we were little and my Mom loved it so much. Personally, all I remember from the concert was Amy Grant wearing a big red dress and then falling asleep. But since I was a little older for this one, it was a little more fun! A good Christmas concert is always a must. And we even got to meet Santa!

Mom and I at the concert

if you don't know who this is, we need to talk. 

In other news, my sweet childhood friend, Corinn, is getting married in 8 days. Crazy, I know. I can't believe it, but I am beyond happy for her and her fiance, Micah. They're wonderful. Needless to say, it was joy filled reunion when I got to see her beautiful face at a shower on Sunday. So. Much. Joy. Mom caught us mid-hug  in the picture below. So there's been lots of wedding festivities going on and still more to come. Today I spent part of my day at her house making flowers. She's so crafty and so creative the flowers are so cute. 

SO. HAPPY. 

aren't these adorable?

Lastly, the weather has finally turned here in Texas. On Saturday it was a high in the low 70s, but today the high was in the 50s. HALLELUJAH. After having cold weather in Rome, 70 degrees didn't exactly feel like Christmas, so I was extremely grateful for the turn for the cold. But because the weather is so odd here in Texas, the leaves are still turning and falling. Even though my beloved state is a season behind, at least I get the joys of fall, like these leaves that were in our driveway today. 

So in short, I'm safely home and celebrating Christmas in all ways possible. While I certainly miss Rome, I'm happy to be here. 

Ciao!