Yes, these are a few of my favorite things!

Love, Mom

Sitting down to write this morning, I feel a giant sigh of relief and calm. It’s finally snowing outside which gives me the perfect excuse to sit inside and cuddle up with my babies. Not that they’ll have anything to do with sitting still, but the thought is nice.

We had a wonderful two days of Christmas filled with family and food and generosity. Tomorrow I’ll share all of my handmade goodies for you, one of them I loved so much I decided to make one for myself, but today I wanted to show you what was gifted to us! We received some fab stuff! I got out of the shower this morning and after using this first gift, I had to shout my love of it from the rooftops, and since the deer behind our house could give a rip about my new body bar, I figured I’d be better off shouting from the blog tops.

If you’ve never heard of Lush Cosmetics, you’re missing out. I’m not a big fan of baths, but they have these bath bombs that make even me want to jump in the tub. All of their products are handmade and smell divine. It’s like a little slice of heaven among all of the harsh perfumes in the beauty section of Macy’s. I drag my mom and mother-in-law over to this place every time we go there. I just love it. My mother-in-law gave my mom and me each one of their Bath Bombs and one of their Massage Bars, which is what I used this morning in place of my regular moisturizer. Oh, be still my dry and flaking skin… I literally can’t stop touching myself. I’m so soft! And I smell delicious! They have a BOGO Free sale going on right now, I suggest you click quickly over to the site and start smelling like me.

This is my mom's. Mine is an adorable Pink Confetti bomb. {image from Lush}

Peace Massage Bar {image from Lush}

Ryan and I have been composting for almost a year now, and while I love the feeling of not throwing away food and putting it to good use in our gardens, storing the stuff is a royal pain because:

1. It smells like dead people.

2. It takes up a lot of space.

3. It smells like dead people.

So, I bought a giant thing of kitty litter a while back on sale and when I finished using it, we converted the giant bucket into a compost bin. It’s super handy because it has a lid to keep the dead people smell to itself, and it’s also large enough that I don’t have to trudge through the wet lawn every morning to go make friends with my compost pile. Win. Win. The problem is, when I’m cooking, I like to have a garbage can handy to throw away the trash, but the small compost bowl was great for the food scraps. Now that we have a large bin, I can’t just leave the thing open! My whole house will smell like a crime scene and no one will want to eat. Behold the new compost holder! It’s actually an ice bucket, but my mother-in-law thought it would be an awesome compost holder for when I’m cooking! Genius! And it matches my kitchen, so when we’re not using it, it’s not a giant eye sore. Love this!

Behold, the red bucket!

And what girl doesn’t love sparklies!? I’ve been dying for a pair of these:

Don't worry, they're not real, not that anyone can tell. ❤

And my hubby obliged. And as predicted, I’m also going to be enjoying a wonderful one hour massage from my mom’s massage therapist. I can’t wait! Ryan received some great gifts too. Some much needed warm weather work gear, some fun kitchen stuff we can play with together, and then this hilarious shirt from my mom, which he took a picture of himself in with my phone. I found it this morning, and choked on my coffee. Here you go…

My Hot (AND NERDY) Husband

My mom bought me a winter coat, something I’ve needed since I moved back to Michigan, but never bothered with since I do have regular coats and rarely play in the snow. This year, we’re probably going to be spending more time outside, so I’m totally excited to finally have a down coat all to myself that actually fits. The girls were showered with clothes and toys, books and blocks, and so much love. It was a fantastic two days of Christmas. We had SO much food though, I think I’ve finally come back to Earth from my sugar high, but the sugar is probably the only way I actually finished the ELEVEN loads of laundry yesterday. Good grief. I also made a ton of lists for organizing and our thank you note lists. It feels good to start the new year fresh and with a plan. Thank God for my 101 list.

Here are some too cute not to share pictures of our Christmas morning. Happy Tuesday!

See? We don't need toys. We have wipes!

The girls tackling their first gift. (It was Mega Bloks!)

Lily, sitting pretty.