Apartment Living Christmas

Last year we had a pretty small living room, which meant we didn't have any room for a Christmas tree. For the two previous Christmases, we had been living in an even smaller apartment with barely enough room to walk between our couch and chair. We had a little tinsel tree that we stood on top of our TV, but decided to sell that when we moved to Arizona.

Come last winter, we had no tree to speak of and no where to put one! So we got a little creative...

Yes, that is indeed our Christmas tree. It was made of lights and nailed into our wall! It was so simple and made it a really fun way to decorate in such a small space. 

To add even more holiday cheer, we used the nails holding each corner to also hang our few ornaments.

It was a really fun way to decorate for Christmas! It brought the perfect amount of light for watching movies on the couch and cuddling up with some hot chocolate. I'm sure we'll continue this tradition somewhere in our home because we loved it so much. 

Fresh Start

I am starting something new. Well, a lot of things new. I just quit my full-time job in preparation for a new full-time job: mommy.

This will be less about motherhood and more about me adapting into it. It will be a place for me to keep track of my new adventures and goals. The recipes I now have time to try, the crafts I somehow put together, the activities I do with the youth group at church. An electronic scrapbook of my new endeavors, attempts, trials, if you will.

Why Zuri & Parker? I guess I wanted the name to be something unique, but doesn't box me into anything (because I don't really know which box I belong in anyway!). Zuri means "beautiful" in Swahili. We were at the Phoenix Zoo in the early stages of my pregnancy and were learning about the giraffes. The tour guide named all of the giraffes and explained the meaning behind their names. I thought it was the most beautiful, unique, graceful name I'd ever heard. While I'm not sure if it would work for any future children, I knew I wanted to keep it tucked away for something special. Parker is a name I have always loved. Again, for various reasons I don't think we'll use it for children, so I wanted to use it for something else. Hence, the names were plucked from various ideas and molded together to form this blog.