Christmas 2011 Recap

I sincerely hope that each and every one of you had a fabulous Christmas and made time to remember the reason for the season during your hustling and bustling!  It's time for the annual Chicken Wing Christmas Recap! 

Our weekend started with Comanche's family celebration, where we got together and exchanged gifts and Comanche's older brother prepared cherries jubilee for everyone!  It was amazing to hang out with my soon-to-be in-laws and nephews and watch them interact with CiCi and MuChi, who came along in their Christmas best - a sweater for CiCi and MuChi's famous "I ate Santa's cookies" t-shirt!

Then, it was on to Momma Chicken Wing's house where the Chicken Wing siblings did our annual tradition - we drag Little Brother Chicken Wing's mattress into Little Sister CW's room and we all stay cramped in there and watch Elf as we fall asleep.  Always funny!


pics on Sodahead

The next morning, we opened our family stockings, and this was the very first Christmas for Momma CW's new husband Dubya!  I think he made out like a bandit and had some Christmas fun!  After we all got dressed and ready, we made the trip to Grandma Chicken Wing's house with all of our presents and had one of the most delicious Southern lunches you've ever seen!

On the menu:  turkey, country ham, creamed potatoes, green beans, butter beans, corn pudding, deviled eggs, rolls, fried apples, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, macaroni salad, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake with white icing - it could not be beat, I'm telling you what!

After lunch came the food coma and then we opened gifts, which is always so much fun!  I get way more excited to watch everyone else open their gifts than I do to open mine!  I will say that Comanche did especially well this year!  He knows me better than I know myself sometimes and he gave me two gifts that stood out this year!  The first?  These gorgeous Jessica Simpson flats that I'd been drooling over for weeks:

Bring on the bling!  Your feet should get to sparkle too!

The other gift is one that I will truly cherish forever!  For our wedding next year, there are lots of things that will be classic and traditional (we're not too wacky, y'all!).  One thing that will be a little different is that I didn't want to wear pearls on my wedding day.  I know, I know - call me crazy!  I want to wear blue topaz jewelry since it is my Daddy's birthstone - that way, he can be with me all day even though he can't be there in person!  I had one blue topaz necklace, but it wasn't going to work, so Comanche got me the most perfect and beautiful necklace ever!  Here's the photo of it from the seller:

Isn't it GORGEOUS?!?!?

What I love about it is that I can enjoy this on our wedding day but also any other day!  It is so pretty and in no way is it too gaudy for everyday!  The really cool thing is that blue topaz is also Comanche's birthstone, so it's really special! I think the man did very well this year and I adore him!  (For those of you who wonder how Comanche made out, he did pretty well - I finished off his weight set for him for Christmas and his birthday, which was two days after Christmas)!

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday full of laughs, smiles, and thankfulness!  I am so excited for next Christmas as I expect it will be even better!

Until next time,

THE HAPPIEST POST OF MY LIFE

Okay, there is going to be limited verbiage.  I'm going to let the video and the pictures do the talking.

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So, I will apologize for the fact that I look absolutely HORRID in this video - I had bawled my face off with sheer bliss and makeup reapplication apparently never occurred to me.  For that, I am truly sorry, but I guess it can be forgiven since I was clearly high on love while this video was filmed!

So, needless to say, last night was amazing and I am greatly looking forward to spending THE.REST.OF.MY.LIFE with this man, and I am absolutely the LUCKIEST girl I know! 

He could have any woman in the world that he wanted.  Even as the ring sits on my finger, I still can't believe he chose me.

Okay, okay, you didn't think I would actually leave you hanging without seeing the most incredibly amazing gorgeous drool-worthy insane beautiful ring in the whole wide world, did you?  Come on, now, you know I'm not that mean. 

What do I love about this ring?

Let's do this in list form, because we all know that's how I roll.

1.  It was chosen by Comanche with absolutely no guidance from me or anyone else.  (Dang, he did good!)

2.  It really reflects my sassy, sentimental, and girly personality.

3.  Comanche used what I call the "lucky stone."  The lucky stone is the diamond that my darling PaPa (whom I lost last year to Alzheimer's) gave to my Grandma.  He picked it out for her, and she wore it for my whole life.  They were married for almost 59 years!  Also, the diamond once fell out of her setting when she was at a craft fair, and she didn't realize it until she got home.  After calling them frantically, she asked if she could take all of their trash home (hoping and praying that someone had swept it up).  After going through industrial-sized bag after industrial-sized bag, she found her diamond.  In the bottom.  Of the very.last.bag.  So, I call it the lucky stone, and I was honored and privileged to have her want to pass it along to me!

4.  It was designed by a pro.  Seriously.  You may know this guy:


Neil Lane, meet my peeps.  Peeps, meet Neil Lane.

 5.  Most important reason ever - because my Comanche gave it to me as a symbol of the fact that he wants me to be his wife.  There is no greater honor that I've ever achieved and I am so incredibly blessed to call him my future husband.  If he would have given me a bread tie or a popsicle stick, I would have been just as thrilled because the symbolism would have been the same.  I will say that this symbol is amazing, though, and I find that I will need to invest in more sunglasses.  ;) 

I love this man, I love this man, I love this man.

Until next time,

When You Have A Good Job...

...your birthday sort of rocks!  :)  Yes, I said it!  One thing that my company does that is super duper awesome is that they send you a package to your house for your birthday.  Granted, it's not always on your birthday, but it's usually the week of your special day.  Want a sneak peek of what's inside?  Of course you do!

Basically, anything from here is AHHH-MAZING!

Pretty packaging!

What's a present without a card?

Oh my goodness - what do we have here?

Cookies, peanut butter squares, and brownies - OH MY!

Double decker brownies!!!

Attack of the Chicken Wing!

HOORAY for birthday treats!!!

As I always say, it's the small things in life that mean the most, and it's little touches like this that can set a company apart.  It's easy to get busy with the hustle and bustle of your everyday duties, but it's really nice to know that your company cares enough about you to acknowledge you on your birthday!

As you're reading this, I will be hopefully figuring out how to settle into turning twenty-seven and enjoying my birthday treats with Comanche on the little birthday adventure he's planned for me!  Let's hope Hurricane Irene doesn't invite herself to my party!!!  I don't like party crashers, what can I say?

Until next time,

Oh, The Horror...And The Joy

One of my favorite and least favorite things about myself is that I can very easily see (and argue) both sides of just about anything.  While this is a good thing because I have little trouble relating to people in all kinds of situations and seeing someone else's point of view, it's also a very frustrating thing because I end up having a hard time deciding which side is the right side.

Case in point?  On Friday, I will be turning twenty-seven.  There, I said it.  The Chicken Wing will be another year older, and I can see the top of the hill that we all eventually go over.  Fact of life?  Sure.  Melodramatic?  Definitely.

On the one hand, I find myself completely overanalyzing my life - sometimes, it's hard to be a girl, y'all!  I find that as I get older, I do tend to revert back to my high-school mentality and I compare myself to other people.  Heck, more than half of my friends from high school are married and not just have one child - they have multiple children.  What?!?!?  We are totally not old enough for this to be happening - why am I constantly living an episode of "Sixteen and Pregnant?" 

But, it's time to face the facts, Chicken Wing.  We absolutely are old enough for this to happen.  People get married.  People have babies.  We really are grown-ups now.  That's life.  I guess I get a little hung up because I feel like maybe I'm a bit behind everyone else.

But, on the other hand, after I get done obsessively looking in the mirror and critiquing my progress in fighting the aging process, I have to have a laugh at my antics and smile real big (which undoubtedly will create more wrinkles on my face).  Why?  Because, let's face it - I have it pretty good. 

Yes, on Friday, I will be twenty-seven years old.  No, I am not married yet, nor am I engaged.  No, I don't have a gaggle of little chicks following me around.  Yes, I am still renting all these years later.  But, and there is a but....

I have multiple fabulous jobs when some people can't find one. 


Coworker/friend J-Man rocking the "WOW" face.



Full-time job family beach house dog pile!!!



Yes, that is my natural hair color (I'm in front!)



Part-time job = Full-time love!



I had the opportunity to go to and graduate from an amazing college and made some ridiculously awesome friends while there (to add to the ridiculously awesome friends I've had with me since childhood). 



College & Sorority sisters for life!  Alpha love!



My little sisters (both sorority and biologically)!



Love these girls like WHOA!



Two more college lady loves!  <3 my B & B!



So blessed to still have a lot of these Governor's School high school friends in my life!

You can take the girl out of the small town, but you can't take the small town out of the girl!

Best friends since Pre-K!

My little sissy growing up got married this year!  Love you to pieces, G-K!

I got set up on a blind date with literally the most amazing man I've ever met, and over the past year, he and I have created the kind of relationship that I've wanted my whole life. 

So in love with this man!

Thank you, sweet friends, for setting me up with the best gift I've ever received!

My family seriously rocks the most.  It's true, people, we're awesome.  You know it.  We know it.  Glad everyone's okay with that.

Tar Heels for life!

The Siblings Chicken Wing.

Everyone says we're twins!  What do you think?

Welcome to the family, Dubya!

I have the CUTEST furbabies on the planet.  Seriously, tell me I'm lying.  I dare you.

My heart swells with love and pride for these two! So.freaking.adorable.

So, here's to you, twenty-seven.  You may be taking another year off my life, but I laugh in your face.  Look back at all the pictures of what I've got (and if I posted pictures of EVERYONE I have in my life, I would certainly crash this blog).  Twenty-seven or not, who wouldn't want to be me?  That's why no matter my age, every year I can say that I will have a very happy and very blessed birthday.

Until next time,

Three Reasons Today Was Awesome

One thing that I feel is extremely important in life is taking and making the time to be grateful for something - for anything.  In life, things go wrong or not as you planned.  Some dreams don't work out.  Sometimes you lose someone or something close to you.  Sometimes, you feel as though your prayers are unanswered.

Let's be real here - it is so much easier to focus on what you don't have than to focus on what you do have, and I'm genuinely not a fan of that behavior.  My cold, hard look in the mirror reveals that I, too, let the negative get the better of me.  It's easier to whine than to be thankful, but that doesn't make it right.  I want to change that pattern of thinking in my life to the best of my ability.

So, I decided that I would share three reasons why today was awesome.  Here goes nothing!

Reason Number One:  I got to "get the day started" (as my friend M would say) with a hot cup of coffee in my very favorite coffee mug - a hilarious birthday gift from Little Sister Chicken Wing.

Mug Saying: "When The Going Gets Tough, Tell Me I'm Pretty."
Yes, it's summer.  Yes, I'm pasty.  Don't judge me.

Reason Number Two:  I got to watch the video featured in THIS POST that made me start my day with a hearty laugh!


Reason Number Three:  I received a very special gift from one of my amazing colleagues!  Check it out!

Bow chicky wow wow.

(Confession - it's not what you would think based on the packaging, but I think that's probably a good thing!  Haha!)

My gift was really tomatoes grown in her garden!!!!  Thanks, Nance!

Question to my readers:  Could you list any reasons why today was awesome?  If so, I'd love to hear them!  LEAVE A COMMENT! 

If you couldn't give one reason why today was a good day, you most likely need to do some business and check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Until next time,

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Okay, so every now and again, a ray of sunshine breaks through what seems like a world of gray skies, thunderstorms, and minor flooding (if you're standing in the parking lot of the complex where I live).

Looming.

Coming.

Here.  (FYI I was not moving while taking these pics!)

Besides the fact that we literally had one of the worst storms ever on Tuesday, and my parking lot did flood pretty badly (photo evidence above), I got the most amazing rays of sunshine today!  It was a morning like any other morning, apart from two things - a special note and a special email.

The special note was left by my gift-delivering ninja, Comanche!  It contained words of encouragement and love and I was taken by a wave of appreciation for him and knowledge that somehow, I am blessed enough to have that man in my life.  God is so good, and He has been especially good to me.

The special email was from a lady that I don't personally know, but we will call her my fairy godmother/deliverer of amazing news!  What was this news?  I ACTUALLY WON A GIVEAWAY!  I have literally entered hundreds, I would have to say, in my lifetime.  This email marked the SECOND time I've won!  Haha!  Moral of the story:  If you want to win the lottery, your best bet does not live in me! :)

Now, the first giveaway I won earlier this year was special to me because of three reasons.  The first is that it was hosted by a woman that I have grown so very fond of, despite the fact that we've never met.  The second is that it was my first time winning a giveaway!  The third was that it came at the perfect time and helped me get my newest business started with my partner!

This giveaway is special to me for multiple reasons, too.  The number one reason was it was hosted by one of the most respectable wedding magazines on the planet, which provides inspiration and guidance to brides with Southern flair. 

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I mean honestly...how flipping adorable is their website header?  I die for the cuteness!  The second reason I was so incredibly excited is because this giveaway contained a prize that is "song-of-the-South, sweet-potato-pie-and-I-shut-my-mouth" adorable!!!!!  Don't believe me?  Check this out!

Yes, that is the Southern Weddings Magazine website.
Yes, that is my hand making that thumbs up.
Yes, I somehow by the grace of God won
that adorable clutch & bowtie!

If you'd like to read the official post by Southern Weddings Magazine, you can do so by clicking --> HERE.

I have to say a huge thank you to the ones who made my day today!  You will never understand how happy and grateful I am to have received these blessings, and I want each and every one of you to go check out Southern Weddings Magazine!  The photo shoots are gorgeous, the brides, editors, and writers are Southern belles, and preppy country goodness drips off the pages and melts your heart!

Until next time,