Post Christmas Shopping

Every year I wake up early the day after Christmas and I head to Target. I don't do the whole store hoping, I just go to Target. I grab a few items I had my eye on during the holiday season, and I quickly put them away so I am not tempted to put them out or use them this year.

Then every Christmas I have something "new" to decorate with! It's like a surprise every year! This year I walked away with a few great finds. I only picked two pieces, but I got a great deal on them, and I will be really excited about them next year!

#1. My new cashmere fir tree ...



I am starting a new tradition next year. Since the kids don't really get to help me set up our Christmas tree in the family room [too many breakable ornaments] I got them their own Christmas Tree. Every year I'll let them pick a new ornament or two to add to the tree!

#2. Iced Grapevine Balls ...



I have been eyeing these for a while now, I want to use them on my tablescape for next year. The picture shows a regular grapevine ball, but the ones I purchased are iced ... so pretty!!

Did you all find any great deals? Better yet, what did you all get for Christmas?

Merry Christmas from the Imhoff's

Christmas Traditions

Post from Last Year ... Christmas Traditions ...
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One of my favorite things about Christmas is all the family traditions that have been passed down, and new ones we're creating with our own family. It's something to look forward to the entire year, even the kids are starting to remember them.

For documentation purposes, here are some of our family traditions:

1. In early November, all of the women on my mom's side (really we take our kids too so there are guys there) but we all gather and bring TONS of cookies for our cookie exchange. This year each of us made 4 dozen per person ... yeah, add that one up :) This way we do not have to bake very much during the holidays and we have an assortment of cookies. We also make my Grandma's famous sugar cookies there, so the kids can cut them out and frost them!

2. Every year, a week or two before Christmas, we pack up and head to KC for my mom's side of the family. It's our "Steak Fondue" Christmas celebration. Have you ever had Steak Fondue? It's SO yummy and unique. We all are able to sit around the table, talk and cook our own food. It allows for a longer dinner, which is wonderful when you haven't had a chance to catch up with family for a while.

3. Of course we always take the kids to see Santa sometime between Thanksgiving & Christmas, it's always funny to see how they will react. I love it! Lately, Bass Pro has offered FREE pictures at their locations, so we don't have to go to the mall and pay a ridiculous price for their pictures, which are bad quality too! Plus, who doesn't love to walk around Bass Pro, we all think it's fun!

4. Christmas Eve is a big day for us. You can usually find me in the kitchen baking something for dinner that night. The kids are off playing, and Ryan is usually putting gifts together that need to be assembled before time. We all go to a Christmas Eve service at our church just down the road, and afterwards head to Ryan's Grandma's house for dinner. This is not just any dinner ... this is Surf n' Turf Dinner ... complete with steak and king crab legs. Seriously, my favorite meal of the whole entire year! What's great about this dinner, is it's Ryan's family & my family ... now how many people can say that? It's great to have us all under one roof. After dinner the kids get to open some gifts and we all sit around and relax and the men indulge in some Crown. AND after all of that, we head back to our house, and throw some cookies dough (made that morning) into the oven for Santa. Baths are taken and we all curl up and read The Polar Express. Nothing is better than that!

Christmas morning we all wake up and enjoy our family Christmas with all the Santa gifts as well. Eat a good breakfast and go crazy with excitement! This is one of my favorite times! Once we all clean up and shower, we head over to Ryan's parents for gift giving, lunch and just relax.

Christmas evening we head over to Ryan's Grandma's Sisters, where the whole extended family is for food and games. Usually the women are upstairs playing board games and the men go downstairs and play poker. It's a great way to end the Christmas day. And as you can imagine, we are all EXHAUSTED afterwards!

What are some of your family traditions?

Presents are Wrapped/Table is Set

It's the night before Christmas Eve. Up until today, our lives have been ciaos, but tonight, it's calm! Kids are asleep, presents are wrapped and the table is set. All that's missing is a little snow on the ground!




I have to say, Christmas has really snuck up on me this year. It really doesn't feel like Christmas will be in 2 days, but I am so excited for our family get-togethers. Tomorrow afternoon my Dad is coming down to visit and have our own little Christmas with the kids. Tomorrow night we'll attend our Church's service and then head over to Ryan's Grandmas for our annual Christmas Even surf n' turf. Christmas morning we'll have our own family traditions are our home, head over to Ryan's parents house and wind up at my Mom's house Christmas night. It will be a full 2 days, but I couldn't be more excited.

When you're a kid, you live for Christmas, but as you grow up, it looses a lot of the hype. Until you have kids. The joy on their faces Christmas Morning is the best in the world!

Hope you all have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

As Christmas comes closer, I thought I would show you what our Christmas tree looks like. I am in LOVE with it this year.

So here's the deal, I LOVE me a flocked tree. So before I place any decorations, I flock the absolute CRAP out of the tree. It's pretty much a white tree when I am finished with it, only because I know a lot of it will fall off as I am decorating the tree and as time goes on.

My color scheme is simple, white, silver and glitter. I have everything from glittered pine cones to ostrich feathers. My absolute favorite tree ornament this year are my glittered birds with a white feathered tail ... gorgeous! My tree also only has white clear lights, I'm not a huge fan of colored lights for some reason.

So, this year I did something that was CRAZY and the verdict is still out. After flocking my tree, I took a TON of silver glitter, and while the flock was still wet, I threw glitter all over. Yes ... I am still picking it up and finding it in weird places, but it does make the tree look super cool!







What does your tree look like?

DIY: Reuse Broken Ornaments

Raise your hands if you have ever broken a glass ornament? Now raise your hand if your kids have ever broken one of your glass ornaments? It's bound to happen. It happens to me EVERY year, something happens, always an accident of course, but something always breaks. This year the culprit was our dogs tail, and I noticed the broken silver glass ornament looked pretty. As weird as it sounds, the silver shattered glass was pretty.

Since I always like to reuse objects in different ways, I started thinking about how to incorporate it in my other Christmas decorations. I already had 2 boxes of clear glass, DIY, ornaments from last year. So I wanted to see if I could use the broken glass to display in the clear ornaments. I tried it once, and after I liked what I saw, I went to get more supplies!






First up you'll need clear glass ornaments. You'll also need GLASS ornaments to "break" or you can use already broken ornaments. I got really lucky. I found silver glass ornaments at Goodwill for 95 cents! I also got another box of broken ornaments at the same place for 20 cents since they were damaged. Little did they know I would be breaking them anyways!! I used a couple of walmart sacks, but you'll need a safe place or bag to fill with ornaments so you can break them without hurting yourself. I used a hammer. Afterwards, you'll fill the clear ornaments with the shattered glass and you're done! I added a ribbon to the ornament before I placed them on the tree. What do you think? Now you have a way to reuse your broken ornaments!

Here is the ornament on our tree!

Hospital Sleepover Weekend

Well, I can't even begin to explain the crazy weekend we had here. I will have to say it was one of the scariest experiences I have had as a mother. Bayler has been pretty sick for about a month now, just off and on, nothing too serious. He started daycare about a month and a half ago, and if you have kids, you know they are bound to get sick left and right in the beginning.

So I started noticing the last few days of last week he seemed to be acting differently. He was really achy, didn't play very much, and was stiff. Especially if I needed to pick him up or change his diaper. I am telling you, on Thursday, I went to lay him down to change him, and he screamed, had to roll on his back, and couldn't sit up without rolling on his side, that's how much pain he was in. I felt SO bad. I immediately called the doctor, and they were able to get in the next day at the office. SO, overnight was terrible. I really thought we would be okay with Tylenol, but his lymph nodes began to swell. When he finally arrived at the doctors office, his nodes were past his cheeks. The doctor looked at him for about 30 seconds, checked his throat, and said "I am really uncomfortable with what I am seeing, he needs to be emitted immediately to the hospital, and there needs to be blood work, IVs and a CAT scan done." WHATTTT. You can imagine how scared I was. It was so serious, they would not let me run home to get his blanket or his comfy clothes, they told me I had to drive right there. AHHH.

We got him there, and I was thinking they would give him a strong antibiotic and we would be there for a few hours ... little did i know, we would be there for 3 straight days. It was awful. He was so tough though. THANK GOD it turned out to be a sever infection, but when we got there we had to talk about the possibilities of a mass or obstruction behind his tonsils. They also were throwing around the possibility of blood cancer, so I am SOOOO thankful this holiday season that Bayler is doing MUCH better, and he just needed to get that IV antibiotic.

I managed to take a few photos of our stay at Saint Mary's ... poor guy even had to wear a babies hospital outfit, had a "cast" like IV, and was pretty much bed bound. UMMM, has anyone tried to keep a 2 1/2 year old in bed for 3 days straight?





Did I mention that Santa came to visit Bayler twice? AND brought gifts. I am so thankful that someone took the time to do that for not just Bayler but the other kids, it's such a pick-me-up in the hospital!

Christmas Bokah

I have been playing around with my new lens this past week ... and I like what I see :) I wasn't really planning on loving it as much as I do, so this turned out to be a pretty expensive "hobby!"




It's kinda fun playing around with photography :)

{Photo's with Santa}

We finally got around to take the kids to see Santa this weekend, and I have to say, they were much more interested in the Bass Pro games then seeing Mr. C in person. In fact, it was almost a chore for them to wait in line to sit on his lap, rather than being overly excited about it. Not really sure what to think about that.

Braeden was his usual self, he acted goofy the entire time he was with Santa, telling him everything he could possibly want for Christmas. Bayler on the other hand ... was HIS usual self. He didn't want to have anything to do with him, and screamed for me the entire time. Whew, so glad we went :)

At least we got some memorable photos of the kids, at least they are story's we can laugh about later :)




Happy Holidays!

{Imhoff Family Christmas Tree 2011}

Next week I am going to post all about Christmas and share number of photos, but I thought I would leave you with this photograph of our Christmas Tree this year. It's my favorite yet, complete with ostrich feathers, glittery pine cones, and DIY ornaments. Enjoy!



I took this photo using my new lens, which allowed me to create the "glow" you see. This technique can be found here.

But in case you just want to stay on our page to keep it easy, here is what I did. I turned my fstop WAY low, I think it was at 1.8. My aperture was at 1/30 and my ISO was at 1600. This creates the "GLOW" effect and makes Christmas lights shine!

The Bridal Solution on Today's News

If you aren't busy tomorrow {December 8th, 2011} please check out KOMU U-News with Sara Hill at 4:00 PM. The Bridal Solution will be on the show tomrorow speaking about Bridal U, and just giving the viewers a bit more information about the event itself!



If you do not live in Mid-Missouri, and would still like to watch, pleae visit KOMU News's website here, and click "View Live."

For additional informtation about the Bridal U, check out our website here!

{From the Desk of The Bridal Solution ... PR Release Dec. 2011}

Would love to share with you what The Bridal Solution, llc is up to lately ...

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PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

Natalie Imhoff
The Bridal Solution, llc.
573-808-3112
thebridalsolution@gmail.com


The Bridal Solution and UMC Students Launch Bridal U to Educate Brides

“Providing Brides the Knowledge to Plan the Perfect Wedding”

Columbia, Missouri – November 30, 2011 – The Bridal Solution’s Natalie Imhoff and University-of-Missouri Students in the Hospitality Management Program are fusing education and inspiration in a new event their calling Bridal University. This one-day intensive conference style affair brings together The Bridal Solution’s top wedding professionals and brides who are looking for that extra help planning their special day. This informative planning series will give couples the expert guidance, tools and resources they need through the entire planning process.
“There is very limited information about the logistics of planning a wedding,” say’s Natalie Imhoff, owner of The Bridal Solution, llc. “Every bride can use some guidance when planning their special day.” Couples will be able to hear and talk to experts in all different fields, allowing them to receive customized advice without the high price tag of hourly consultations. Those in attendance will be able to sample amazing cuisine and desserts prepared by Fresh Ideas throughout the day and tour the tablescapes full of design inspiration for the 2012 bride. Brides who attend Bridal U will have the benefit of hearing wedding experts in their current market speak on topics like menu planning, photography tips, and the importance of having an on-site coordinator.
Bridal University will be held at the Kimball Ballroom on Stephen’s College Campus, and is scheduled for February 19, 2012. Brides are encouraged to register early to receive a discounted ticket price. All brides who attend Bridal University will receive a complimentary gift bag and Bridal U t-shirt. Attendance is limited. For more information regarding Bridal University, a list of our top wedding professionals, sponsors and course schedule, please visit http://www.theBridalU.com.

About the Company
The Bridal Solution, an award winning, wedding and event planning firm in Mid-Missouri, focuses on bringing fresh design inspiration to the modern day bride. Natalie & her event team are available to assist brides through the planning process with as much or as little help as they may need leading up to the big day. Whether they are in the beginning stages or final stages of the planning process, the Bridal Solution prides itself on working with brides on all budgets to give them the wedding of their dreams, stress free!

The Bridal Solution is also available to plan non-wedding related events, such as parties, galas and fundraisers.For further information, please visit us at http://www.thebridalsolutionllc.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/thebridalsolution.

Natalie M. Imhoff
The Bridal Solution, llc.
405 Mesa Avenue
Jefferson City, Missouri 65101
573-808-3112
Thebridalsolution{at}gmail{dot}com

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