Goooood morning Vietnam! I can tell this week’s going to be a good one for a few reasons: 1) I’m spending a few days with my Granny & Pawpaw, which is always a good time. 2) Aaron & Shannon are getting married on Saturday!! It’s going to be an absolutely beautiful day! And 3) it’s my birthday week! Not that I’m one of those people who celebrates their birthday for an entire week. I’m just looking forward to Friday, that’s all :).

Oh, AND? On Thursday night, we’re finally spilling the secret to the newsletter community of what we’ve been up to for the last six months! AH!!! I’m so excited!!

In the spirit of being present with my grandparents, we’ll keep this brief. As always, lessons learned/events that transpired over the past week!

• I will take ANY excuse to wear a cocktail dress. Matt’s company had their Christmas party on Saturday and we took the opportunity to get fancy! I wore my favorite LBD and my first ever smokey eye. Oh yes, friends. We party hard.
• We’re planning for my next trip to France + England and I’m getting SO excited!! But on the flip side, it’s making me realize how very much I would love to see Paris at Christmas. So I actually considered buying a last-minute ticket to France for the week before Christmas.
• And yes, Matt, I know ^that’s^ the first you heard of this. You know I would have talking it over with you before buying a ticket! 🙂
• Yesterday, a Timehop showed up on my newsfeed reminding me that J&M’s The Big Next announcement was three years ago. I cannot believe how far things have come since then- my goal back then had been to elevate my business to that of a “luxury brand,” whatever that meant. (I think it just meant I wanted to shoot pretty thing [see Friday’s blog post]). Now, three years later, I know that this business is meant for so much more than just pretty. It’s amazing how much has changed, and changed radically, since 2012.

And in contrast to the adorable photo above (from our Christmas card last year), here’s one of my all-time favorite outtakes. #Realisbetterthanperfect- this is real life with Lily. She’s an obstinate butthead, and I love her SO MUCH!