Holiday wishes...

Happy Holidays from the soon-to-be Klassens! 

Merry Christmas to all... and to all a good night!

Hope your holiday wishes were filled with delight! Happy Christmas! 

Merry Christmas to Grandma Val!

We missed you tonight dear Grandma Val! Praying for you always with much love in our hearts! We took a photo just for you! 

We certainly fill the room... :) Have a very merry Christmas! 

Visions of sugar plums...

We have been baking oodles and oodles of goodies this week! It's so fun to make all kinds of sweets and some not-so-sweet treats! So... our cookies didn't turn out this amazing, but I thought these were adorable! :)  

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and take the time to remember the real reason for the season, Our Savior! 

P.S. Our wedding website is in the works! Check it out at natalieandgarrett.com! Much more to come!!

Engaging moments...

All our recent engagement photos are up!! Check them out by clicking here! Beware there are a "few" kissy pictures, lot's of goofiness and a few "not so good one's" ha! (those aren't Christy's fault!) What can I say? We have fun! :) 

As a side note... while shopping in Target the other day, Garrett and I walked by this couple and happened to overhear the conversation long enough to laugh. The husband was trying to pickout Christmas gifts for his kids while his wife was telling him a list of things she wanted for Christmas... "and I would love some new photo frames, oh! socks and slippers, and a necklace..." (then there was a pause)... "GARRETT! Are you even listening to me!?" 

We laughed as somehow this sounded oddly familiar... I just can't put my finger on it... hmmm... 

I guess we marry the men we love for who they are and not for their listening, multi-tasking or shopping abilities! Although Garrett is getting pretty good at all three!  

An apple a day... makes me happy!

Props to Apple, Inc... they are true genius. 

As many of you know, my fairly new iMac has been to the doctor more than once! After it's third trip in to the computer repair store we decided enough was enough and thought it was time to see what we could do about a replacement. Since it was under warranty from the company at least until March we figured they would oblige. So last week my sweet Garrett called the Apple company to ask for a replacement and boy did they deliver! 

Not only was the lady he talked with super sweet, but she immediately said "you are getting a faster, better, brand new one and we are overnighting it!" Amazingly, it came this week as promised and works fabulously well!

We tried out a new program called the "Migration Assistant" and the smoothness of transferring gigs of information, programs, music, movies and photos from my previous imac to this one was a breeze! I was truly amazed at the genius behind these programs! When I logged in my computer looked exactly as the old one did, everything intact!

So kudos to them and their graciousness and warrantees! I am so thankful for a new computer that works... just in time for Christmas!

I just love to smile. Smiling is my favorite.

Today is the official "answer the phone like Buddy the Elf" day! Something like... "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?" 

So in preparation of this goofy event I have been watching the movie and laughing at the silliness! Enjoy!

 

Wrap it up...

Last night I started wrapping our growing stack of gifts! I always put on my favorite Christmas album "Celebrate The Season With Tupperware" from 1987! Mom sold Tupperware back in the day and got this cassette one Christmas and it's been a tradition ever since... and I never get tired of the "old" songs! Circa 2007, I converted this cassette-tape to a cd as it was wearing thin and we are running out of tape players! :)   

I so enjoy all the ribbons and bows and shiny papers! Every year AFTER Christmas I hit the Target sales and buy all my paper and ribbon for the next year... this insures I not only get THE best ones that I love, but also for really cheap!! 

I was listening to the "Little Drummer Boy" and it made me think about how I would wrap a gift if I had but one gift to give my Savior. I would suppose I would spend a lot of time on it and make it extra special from all the rest and purpose in my heart that this would be the finest thing I ever created! Kind of silly, I know... and yet I had to stop and marvel at the fact that God does want our very best for Him, everyday. Of course He accepts me for who I am no matter what shape and form I come in, but He seeks to refine me into pure gold! Just a thought I had while wrapping :) Sometimes the greatest moments come during the simplest of tasks.

These photo-gifts are a great idea, especially for Grandparents!

Brilliant thought and simple in form, these would be so fun for any age...

I LOVE satin and ribbon... cute, delicate, perfect for the ladies...

This one is fun, although maybe a little too much work considering in minutes it's destroyed! All photos from Martha

Quote-o-the-day from Kung-Fu-Panda :) "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, and that is why we call it the present!" 

Sweetly singing...

Lillie sang ever-so-sweetly in the Christmas play at church this year! Hard to believe she is old enough to do that already. They were all so darling! 

Such cute kiddos! Next year Titus will be up there like his daddy was not too long ago... 

 

Oh what fun we had at the Christmas plays! Here we are - I am in red tights and a little black dress and Matty is in all grey with red stripes! I am not sure who the little kid on the far right not singing is... ha! Recognize some faces? 

This is at our first house in Newton... feels a lot like today... (and yes I did build that all by myself :)

Every year all of us grandkids got to dress up and act out the Christmas story at Grandpa Veers... it was so fun for all of us kids as we always had a REAL baby Jesus!

My first Christmas... (pause for awes)... surprisingly that toy is still in the toy closet and works! Good ol' Fisher-Price!

Now how adorable is this? Our mother's must have thought we were the cutest babies complete with matching bows. (Natalie and Kelsey)

I loved dolls from the beginning! Grandpa and Grandma Veer always bought us the sweetest things...

All the pretty ribbons and all the pretty bows... I was knee deep and up to my elbows... 

One of my favorite Christmas plays... dressing up as angels! Amazingly these too have survived many a generation!

Wishing you warm thoughts and memories of Christmases past...

Engaging...

Last week my beautiful cousin Christy took our engagement photos and she got some really cute ones! :) These are my favs... I will post the link to them all soon! 

Making a list and checking it twice...

Our Saturday was filled with SHOPPING!! What could be better? We got loads of shopping done, listened to all sorts of Christmas music and enjoyed all the lights and thrills of the season! We - along with several thousand other last-minuters - hit the shops hard! So fun to get out and just shop for friends and family and being in the Christmas mood makes it so enjoyable with my bestest buddy and a large list! 

I just love this time of year... makes me feel like I did at 5 and thought Christmas would NEVER get here... so much excitement in the air! And the shops were more than willing to take our plastic! :)

 Gotta have Starbucks! 

About half the bags we walked out with... we found some awesome deals!!

Bows, beads and frills...

My wedding gown is officially ordered! I am SO excited and it is GORGEOUS!! I can't wait to wear it as it is exactly what I would have designed!  

Over the past few days I have been in search of the perfect wedding dress, the one that I "eww" and "aww" over and say "this is it!" Well being the perfectionist that I am... of course I found exactly what I was looking for - 3 perfectly designed gowns! How can a girl ever choose? 

All of them were beautiful and were only just a teensy bit over my budget! We all knew that would happen... 

Still I HAD to try on what I am sure seemed like several hundred wedding gowns - just in case! Oh so much fun :) Thanks for all your help girls!!

I loved it at first site and it has such delicate detail work, is chic, modern... only one little bow tied on the back - and honestly its beautiful! Dainty beads cover the front with simple lines and such gorgeous design! It's the perfect combination of my inner princess and my modern style, and I am very sure my groom will approve! 

Now onto the shoes...

Catching up...

These days are just flying for me! Seems like there is never enough time to do it all and with Christmas on my mind it makes for some crazy feeling moments.   

While driving home the other night I stopped to think about how fast time seems to have passed me by. It was only just yesterday my little brothers and sis and I were playing in the back yard building sandcastles, flooding them with water, and creating a giant mess designed only for the outdoors.

And today... we don't know what life was like before my niece and nephew! It made me think of the verse in 2 Peter 3:8, "But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." I kept reading this passage and found it a great devotion for today and the our age of speedy-super-instant moments that we live in. 

We have such a great and promising future only in Christ! 

"The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

Bake me a cake...

Time for a little "pre-Christmas" baking... if I get the chance this week! I have been in the mood for fudge, chocolate haystacks, peppermint bark and candy-cane cupcakes! Yum.

Something blue...

It's so hard to pick springy wedding colors when snow and Christmas are in the forecast, but I did it! The wedding colors are decided and deliciously playful! 

They are... (drumroll please) 

1. blue hues

2. pinks (mostly bright)

3. silvers (of course!) 

4. and orange! yay! 

I am thrilled and loving the idea of them all together. It will undoubtedly make for a cheerful and modern-springy-feeling wedding! 

Now if I can only decide on the dress...

Baby pink flowers will be the perfect setting for the reception...

There are so many blues to choose from and I just adore them all... especially the brights! Blue and orange are such a great combo... 

These bright orange birds-of-paradise would make a fabulous addition...

Treats are something definitely on the menu...

I am loving this silver trend...

These are my thoughts at the moment, but I have yet to find the perfect shade of blue for the bridesmaids! Less than 4 months to go! :)