Christmas

Christmas was awesome for us this year! It was Audrey's first Christmas, as well as her cousin Blake's! We had so much fun and the house was filled with Christmas spirit, magic and wonder! Words can't describe how full of joy I felt watching her with the lights and decorations, wrapping paper and presents. So instead, I'll just leave you with some of my favorite photos!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

My hubby and I got our Christmas tree yesterday. We drank cocoa, listening to Christmas music, and had a blast decorating our tree!

Our super cute tree before we started.

Me putting the lights on.

All lit up.

My silly, sometimes off color, hubby!

Straightening the star.

It's difficult to tell here, but this is me putting the
tinsel on one strand at a time.
Yes, I'm that anal, please don't judge me.

Complete!

Me :)

The cute snow couple my Gram made us.

Nativity scene.

We don't have a mantle, so our stockings are
hung from the curtain rods.

I love Christmas, so I'm very happy our tree is up! Not to mention it smells FANTASTIC! One of our favorite traditions is decorating the tree together.

What do YOU look forward to this time of year?

Happy New Year 2009!

I hope you all had a fun New Year's Eve last night! I enjoyed a nice, relaxing night at my parents' house with my parents, hubby, sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law. I was the only one to actually make it to midnight though! *hahaha* My hubby was sick and sleeping by like 8:30 pm, but I woke him up a minute before the ball dropped. I woke him up more because I didn’t want to ring in the New Year alone, than for the fact that I didn’t want him to miss it! ;) We wished each other a happy new year, kissed and went to sleep!

Today was a pretty low key day too, although we did have some excitement tonight. As we were sitting on the couch watching some college football, my parents' tree slowly started to tip over. I ran and grabbed it before it went through the window! My hubby, dad and I got it standing back up, only to have it fall again 10 minutes later. We got it standing up one more time and 20 minutes later it was falling again, so we made the executive decision to take it down. It was a really pretty tree this year and my mom certainly won't be happy when she gets home from work tonight, but it's not like we didn't try to keep it up. Below you can see it in all it's glory on Christmas morning.

Luckily, only 3 ornaments broke during this fiasco and they were just generic glass balls, nothing sentimental. We got the rest of the ornaments off the tree, took all the lights off, and then my hubby and dad got it outside. We had all the ornaments stacked up on the coffee table while we were taking the tree apart. They looked really pretty haphazardly piled up so I snapped a photo.
So that was my excitement for New Year's Day! Now we'll just have to survive the wrath of Mom when she gets home from work...

'Tis the season

Thanksgiving is over, so for me (and most people) that means getting out the Christmas decorations! Although I have to point out that the house next door to us has had their Christmas lights on their house since before Halloween! Anyway, I love decorating the Christmas tree. For me it isn't a Christmas tree unless it's a real tree too! Growing up we always had a real tree and there is no comparison to those weird artificial ones that people store in their attic. I love walking through the field to find just the right one. I love dragging it to the car and strapping it to the roof. I love walking into my house and having the smell of the tree meet me at the door.

We found a really nice tree at Whitney's Farm this year! They were all pre-cut so we didn't cut it down ourselves, but it was just the right height and perfectly symmetrical. My hubby thinks it's the best tree we've ever picked. I have to agree. Besides a very small hole that we oriented towards the wall, it's a near perfect tree.

Everyone has their own style when decorating their tree. Some people like white lights and some like colored. Some people like ornaments that all look the same, some like a random collection, and some even put bows. Personally, I like all white lights and lots of random ornaments, with a little silver tinsel put on last. Most people put their star or angel on the top last, but I like to put it on first. I like to start at the top and work my way down. Every year my hubby fights me about this, telling me that my way is wrong. But every year I put the star on first! :) As promised, here are some photos of our decorated tree and some of my favorite ornaments: