Decking The Halls.

Wow, wow, wow! The Christmas season is a bit crazier when you factor a job into the equation -- haha! This is the first year EVER that I've had a regular work schedule at Christmas time (yes, I realize that it's quite normal for everyone else to go to work everyday and that this makes me sound really lame but that's okay) and it's making everything else so much more difficult!

I had a Christmas tree decorating marathon last week -- three trees in three days. Then it was a mad-dash to design and make all 5 zillion of our Christmas cards (okay, only 65 actually, but still way too many for this early in our marriage), but I have since managed to get all of them in the mail. I've also done a bit of slightly frantic Christmas shopping (both online and in stores) and just a few moments ago finished making my first batch of fudge for the season.

 It's all been really fun but there were a few moments where it felt like business instead of pleasure. Like I have this big Christmas to-do list and I have to dutifully make sure that I watch every movie, and bake every type of cookie, and listen to all 53 versions of the same dozen or so Christmas songs. I adore Christmas and I don't want it ever to feel like a chore. I can't wait until school is out for a couple of weeks and I can really relax into the holiday season.

 The trees. Last week we did Mom's tree on Sunday, then Steven and I did ours on Monday evening and then Scott and I decorated Grammi's on Tuesday night. By the time I got to Grammi's tree I was starting to feel like a robot. I think this was the fastest we've ever decorated it. When we finished I had to just lay on the couch and stare at it for a quarter of an hour because I hadn't taken any of it in while I was actually in the process of decorating. It's beautiful, as always. Mom has a lovely tree and it is absolutely perfect, as always. Steven and I have an adorable tree that is packed full of ornaments. It's a bit chaotic but most of them have some kind of memory attached to them so that makes it more fun. I look forward to the day when I can start investing a little in our tree and purchasing matchy-matchy ornaments and all white lights etc. etc. but for now, I absolutely love the hand-me-down chaos of it.

The first Saturday in December Steven and I went straight out to find our tree. It was a very frosty morning, only 32 degrees. Perfect Christmas-tree-picking-out weather.

Look at that cute little tree! Last year was Steven's first time ever having a real Christmas tree, and this year, for the first time ever, Steven got to cut down a Christmas tree. I loved it. We had a nice time at the Christmas tree farm and topped off the visit with french vanilla hot chocolate.

Mom found a perfect tree. Taller than ours but with nice evenly spaced branches and a lovely shape.

Tara and I helped a little with the tree picking-out but mostly we just took cute pictures and ate kringle and wandered around the winter wonderland that is Molbak's.

Amanda wasn't much interested in helping to decorate but she was working on a little project of her own. I guess it was some type of art project... it's supposed to be a picture frame. I have no idea how it turned out but at this point it just looked like a stick-y little reindeer thing.

Santa! I love this Santa ornament. It was the first ornament I put on Mom's tree. I think I want one just like it.

Taa-daa! The tree looks better with the big lights off so you just see the Christmas lights but my camera doesn't do well taking dark photos so I have to use the flash sometimes.

Phew! This Christmas putting together is a lot of work! Mom's house looks so cozy and Christmassy! She has really nice lights on the outside of the house as well.



I don't think I deserved this look. Steven and I have been having so much fun enjoying Christmas together!!! I love it. Spending the holiday season with your husband is just the best thing ever. I'm so glad I'm married. Steven helped me with the lights and then mostly just watched Elf while I did the rest. He would get up every twenty minutes or so, put one ornament on the tree, and then sit back down. It was so funny, I couldn't figure out what prompted it. I think maybe he would just see an ornament that he decided he liked so he wanted to put it on. It was pretty cute.






One of my new favorite ornaments! I found that long red one (there is one more just like it and then three that are the same style but all gold) in the garage of one of the houses my dad recently purchased. I think they look really cool and kind of old-fashioned. The clock ornament on the right is from a little collection that my mom bought for me. She has the same ones on her tree. There are all kinds of cute little shapes. And the one in the upper right-hand corner was a gift from the Mountfords when I was visiting with them at Christmas time a couple of years ago.

Beautiful. See the record player in the background? It only comes out at Christmas time even though I have plenty of non-Christmas records. Steven has been playing the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas records non-stop. Glad we found some Christmas music that he actually enjoys :)


Here's the little wreath that I made. I think it's really cute. It has bells on it and it even lights up! I took a little bow-making class at the community college the week after Thanksgiving and then a couple of days later the same lady taught a wreath-making class. I wanted to make a Christmas decoration that I could keep for years and year and years because I love the decorations that Grammi made when she first got married and still brings out every year.

And Grammi's tree, it was the best photo I could get.

I've even managed to squeeze in a cookie-baking session with Mom and the girls. We were feeling really, really silly! We were cutting little shapes out of all of the bigger shapes so the Christmas trees had stars cut out of the middle and then Tara cut the little girl cookie cutter out of the big girl one and said that cookie was pregnant and I said she should have used the boy cookie cutter so that it could be Mary and Jesus and then Amanda cut the boy cookie cutter out of the bell shaped one and made a "bell-boy" and mostly we were just laughing a lot. I think the camel is still one of my favorite shapes. Do other people have Christmas camel cookie cutters or is that just our family?

Three more days of work and then I plan to spend the weekend cuddling with Steven on the couch, eating satsumas and drinking hot chocolate with Bailey's. And, of course, there's still more cookie-baking and gift-wrapping to be done. Hope your holiday season is off to a phenomenal start!