The Most WONDERFUL TIME of the Year

I LOVE Christmas. Like, I don't think you understand ... I really LOVE Christmas. REALLY REALLY LOVE Christmas. REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE Christmas. I always have. I love everything about Christmas. I love all the busyness of the season. I love all of the delicious BAKING that is done throughout the season (and eating). I love Christmas trees, I love lights, I love the decorations (both the gaudy and the nice) ;-), I absolutely LOVE the music, I love the Christmas parties, I love receiving Christmas cards from friends I haven't talked to all year to find out how they are doing, I love buying presents for people, I seriously love.it.ALL. I especially LOVE the Christmas traditions (old and new) ... and of course I absolutely LOVE a season dedicated to celebrating the birth of Jesus. I love celebrating Jesus' birthday. I love thinking about that special night ... shepherds just minding their own business and then suddenly being told by angels that Jesus was born. How AMAZING that would've been! So, it's no surprise that I'm excited that it's Christmastime again. This year has been a little bit of an "adjustment" for me .... because with all of our transitions and decisions that have had to be made, we are in a furnished apartment - without our tree and decorations :-( That is hard for someone like me who was determined 2 years ago to still put lights on outside of the house, even though I was 8 months pregnant :-) BUT, we did go out and buy a 7ft tree to give our apartment some Christmas flare. So, here are the pictures from our tree decorating family night :-)

Jake chose the colored lights ... and we got 5 CARS ornaments and 5 Woody/Buzz ornaments. Ha. Memories, memories.

Jake and I also made a Christmas chain to go around the tree ....


The chain lasted about ... 3 days. It no longer exists on our tree.

And yes, the tree has already come down on top of Cole. Only once, though. Pretty good, since we've had it up since the weekend after Thanksgiving.
So, even with all my LOVE for Christmas, I also am a stickler for waiting until AFTER Thanksgiving to begin all the festivities. BUT ... the day after Thanksgiving, let the Christmas music START TO PLAY ... and play it did, and play it continues :-) Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas season!
Here we are decorating our California tree :-)