Christmas in July

Every July I try to start thinking about Christmas. I know, it's insane... but it helps the holidays be more fun and less stressful come December. I've upped my Swagbucks game so I can stash away some extra cash and giftcards to use for shopping; I bought wrapping paper and bows months ago when I came across some on clearance at a second-hand store. It's fun to sprinkle in the festive fun ahead of time... I'm always on the lookout for a good gift idea too. No reason not to buy something and stash it away if it's the perfect gift for someone!

Jared is an even bigger Christmas fanatic than me, so we thought it would be fun this past weekend to have a Christmas in July date night. At home, of course ;) I have to say, it was quite the success! We'd planned this a week in advance, so we'd agreed to each get each other a small just-for-fun gift of no more than $10. That limit made us get creative and it was fun to have a reason to open gifts from one another.

After dinner and gifts we made some delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Oh my goodness- it had been a really long time since I baked anything and these cookies were dangerously tasty. I refuse to tell you how many I inhaled had. Or maybe I just lost count.

While we munched on cookies, we cranked the Christmas tunes on our record player, lit our best wintery candles and settled in to play a board game. Not just any board game- a Christmas themed one! Someone bought us this game awhile back and I'll admit it's sat in our basement closet for far too long. We finally got it out this weekend though and realized what a fun little game it is. The concept is simple but it was a tricky memory game we actually enjoyed a lot.

We also miiight have shopped around online that night for some items for T's first Christmas! We didn't buy anything, although this outfit and this ornament were super tempting. We'll try to refrain for now ;) My urge to shop has never been stronger since having baby; I think I should hide my debit card for awhile.

In my efforts to finally take some pictures of life NOT involving a baby, I captured our date night pretty well. Except for two minor details... Jared and I. Ha! I don't think we've taken but one photo together in the past two months- we just aren't too glamorous these day. I don't think there are enough Instagram or Snapchat filters in the world to hide the bags under our sleep-deprived eyes!