cheers!

christmas was great! although i am exhausted from all the holiday cheer- it was well worth it to celebrate with my wonderful family. here are some highlights of dec 25th at our home- enjoy! CHEERS!

merry christmas!!!

rejoice

philippians 4:4

rejoice in the lord always

it's christmas and i am filled with gratitude for the past year and everything (good and bad)

that it has brought. most of all i am thankful for my friends and family.

i am sooo happy to be with my family over christmas and celebrating gods' blessings in our life.

so merry christmas everyone and don't forget to...

BE MERRY

but not TOO merry :)

or as gen(my brothers' girlfriend) likes to call it- getting TOASTY

weekend wrap up

toulouse cafe

chocolate souffle

don't worry, i shared nicely

saturday morning fruit salad

counter act the damage from the day before

men who hug

taylor and his dad steve at steves' 55th birthday party

uncle and cousins

my beautiful sister in law- aubins' handmade wreaths

i LOVE them!! the middle one is my favorite

trying to convince her to start an etsy shop

pre- party white elephant pics

taylor and i had to pose before our guests arrived

the white elephant fun

i think these are their thinking faces about the rules :)

CHEESE!!

we are normally dairy free at the vieger house

but it was lovely to indulge

birds' eye view of the table

or lee lous' view- that little rascal was noshing on our goods when we were looking

i'm so ready for christmas

we are having guests stay with us wed night and thurs night

so i am trying not to freak out about the details

and it all coming together

still need to make banana pudding for my side of the family

and gingerbread for taylor (his non paleo treat for christmas morning)

and my christmas morning frittata

what are YOUR last minute to-do's before the 25th??

confession

confession time

what happens when you combine ladies book club,

wine, and silly laughing girls?

a book club that lasts until 11:45pm!!

well officially past midnight if you count when i got home

on the drive home i got a text from taylor saying 'are you okay?'

i have another confession- when i got home around 12:15pm

i decided to change into my workout clothes

thinking if i slept in them (sportsbra, hair up in a ponytail- the whole thing) waking up at 5:30am

for crossfit wouldn't be so difficult. was my reasoning a little skewed by the wine? perhaps..

needless to say i didn't wake up at 5:30am

but i sure did sleep in my workout clothes!!!

have you gotten into any late night mischief recently?

DO TELL!

alice in WINTERland

head over the what's up whimsy

to see aspiring kennedys' wish list

it just so happens to be one of my personal favorites from avdesign

not that i'm biased or anything:)

thanks to lauren for the shout out

{full blogger wish list here}

white elephant

so i'm over my pity party from yesterday

time to put my big girl pants on!

speaking of PANTS.....have you ever heard of handerpants?

with further ado, let me introduce you...

you heard right!

i think i may have found the best white elephant gift yet!

who doesn't need underpants for your hands?

come on folks-this is THE LATEST CRAZE in fashion

don't believe me? learn more

HERE

snail mail

today i'm a little sad.

i'm mailing christmas packages to all my best girlfriends.

from austin, to denver, to new york city, to kauai, and los angeles-

they are everywhere but close to me.

what makes me really sad is that i won't be seeing any of them over the holidays.

i just want all of them to be

HERE

for the holidays

i know it's selfish of me and very wishful thinking but i miss them!

and if i had endless funds for travel i would go visit them all the time

BUT that's not my reality- wish it was!

most of all i miss connecting

with each of them in our own special way.

what do YOU do when you miss your girlfriends?

how do you keep in touch despite the miles?

if any of you chicas are reading- NO MORE SNAIL MAIL(don't get me wrong- i love mail)

but i love YOU more!

please come visit me- it has been too long!

XO

your long lost friend

alli

weekend wrap up

happy monday everyone!

how was YOUR weekend?

mine was fun. taylor and i have discovered the show parenthood

and have been watching it marathon style on hulu. sunday we got to catch up on a couple of episodes.

saturday we were running around town- i tried to document some of our fun.

saturday morning

on the drive to yoga

white rock lake was covered in fog

ACO

crossfit competition

on our hike up to a timed run, kettle bell lift, and weighted sack lift

very intense and inspiring to see in person

a top of the course

so windy!

our coaches from crossfit dallas central

outside lifting

R+D kitchen

sunday brunch

and of course the angelic taylor

my fav- ahi tuna salad

hold the potatoes and cheese please

actually taylor takes my side of goat cheese every time

one word

yogurtland

that might be a small nilla wafer tucked into the yogurt goodness

this week is going to be nuts!!! we have something wed- sunday including hosting a party at our place. i'm plan on praying a lot (for

sanity), doing yoga, cleaning our house like a mad woman and burning off some tension at cross fit to stay sane.

speaking of parties- we have 2 white elephants to go to this week.

what do you bring to a white elephant-

naughty or nice?

any tips? i'm kind of stumped as what to get?

this and that

my parents live a couple of streets down from us and although we live so close we both have such busy schedules that i rarely hang out over there BUT yesterday was an exception.

i took some time off from designing and decided to take

a 'luke day.' it was sooo fun to hang out all afternoon and evening.

no words can describe how happy you feel when you make this little man smile

in other news- i'm officially obsessed with

THINGS ORGANIZED NEATLY

sadly- i've gotten taylor hooked too:) don't say i didn't warn you!

not that i'm traditional or anything but this is going to be our non-christmas christmas card pic. i got the hookup with some awesome paper to print it on thanks to a special someone ;) you know who you are. i'm going for a budget friendly card this year and trying to mail it postcard style. i'm really excited to see how it turns out!

oh and GUESS WHAT?!

AVDESIGN now has over 100 followers on twitter.

confession: i still don't know what i'm doing twitting

and what not BUT i am sooo excited to have followers

kind of dorky i know but that's me!

if you are on twitter-please follow me

maybe you could give me some tips:)

i'm excited for this crazy weekend to begin

holiday parties, shower tile to pic, a crossfit competition to watch, yoga to take,

and lot's more fun along the way

hopefully i will remember to snap some shots along the way

have a great weekend!

it's the holiday season

that's right folks

the holidays are here!

it's time to go full christmas

let the madness begin!

i wrote about this last week on avdesign

seriously though- how do you stay grounded when

thursday night through sunday night is booked for the next two weeks?

you have to pace yourself so you will have enough

holiday cheer to go around and make sure you stay healthy

i like to re-group by keeping close to home and staying in as much as possible on the nights that we don't have something-that combined with good sleep, healthy food, supplements and yoga & crossfit keep me going strong. i have really been enjoying our home shining with bits of holiday sparkle here & there

our dining room

the succulant wreath on the cake stand

a surprisingly fun find at home depot of all places?!

christmas tree- oh chritmas tree

a cool vintage accent from target!

our 'fun' little tree

avacado ornament found in santa fe

yes i put mustaches on christmas presents :)

so what?!

the big tree and presents below

i found the lovely vintage inspired christmas tree skirt on etsy

courtesy of cookie baker

thanks mom!

what do YOU do to stay sane over the holidays?

dine in or dine out?

rent a movie or see it in the theater?

acupuncture or massage- only kidding on that last one:)

kind of

HAIR-inspiration

HAIR-inspiration

a dress for your tress

my hair is long and limp and bored with my usual style

so today i leave you with some long haired beauties

in hopes to get some inspiration from their unique and effortless style

although i don't know how effortless some of the more complicated braids are

you know what i'm talking about miss fishtale

my hand are still cramping from last time i sported you!

what's your go to dress for those tresses?

much needed break

confession

most of the time i try to do too much at once

i leave one project up and running while another starts as i start another one and so on....

i just need to focus on one thing and finish it then move on to the next

i swear- brushing my teeth while talking on my iphone while dressing- normal for me.

this weekend (sunday specifically) i decided to take a break. a break from work, a break from blogging, a break from documenting the highlights of the weekend via iphone and camera.

i promised taylor i was going to have a

tech free day

no checking email, no iphone pics, no designing- nada. it was more difficult than i thought(in fact i caved after 7pm). after church i went to check my iphone for email- forgot the rules and put it down. at brunch went to send a text- once again i forgot and put the phone down. it's strange to me that these habits of needing to stay connected keep my hand glued to my phone. if we were in europe in a beautiful museum i hope i wouldn't be looking down

at my iphone checking to see if i missed a text.

do you find yourself being addicted to staying connected?

this holiday i am going to make an effort to try to

CHECK IN and be present with my family

instead of checking out with my phone

(during brunch, because my iphone was off limits, i was looking around at the other dining tables

and i couldn't help but observe the little 8 year old girl with her iphone texting away, or watching youtube- whatever she was doing she was glued to her phone and didn't look up?! technology is taking over the kiddos too!!)

for all the runners....

good luck tomorrow running the white rock marathon

you all inspire me so very much!

you are awesome

steve prefontaine is pretty awesome too

love his determination!

30 before 31!

as some of you remember i posted my 30 before 31 list a while back

i've made a lot of progress with scratching numbers off the list

yet no progress in documenting my greatness :)

thanks for the reminder beth

on this chilly thursday i'll leave you with some pics of warmer times

NO 1

run a 10k

tour des fleurs

in september at the arboretum

(look dorry- a 4 and an 8 in my race number?!!)

NO 25

go on a hike with the hubby

this was taken in santa fe in august

when we were celebrating our 3 year!

stay tuned for more to come!

what have you crossed off your list today?