The Season Has Begun

Can you believe that it's almost Christmas?  22 days to be exact!  My son is counting down and reminds me every morning of how many days we have.  He's so excited.  My daughter, being only two, still doesn't quite understand what Christmas is all about but seeing the tree and the decorations are enough to get her excited.  When she sees Santa she'll say "Jesus" but that's okay.  It's the best time of the year for these children and I love seeing the holidays through their eyes.

The day after Thanksgiving we took all the decorations out of the attic and started to set everything up.  The artificial pre-lit tree we've had for the last 7 or so years had a few strands of lights that stopped working.  My husband,who already tried fixing it last year, decided instead of fussing over it again it was time to get a new one.  The new one is smaller than the other but it's perfect.  The kids busied themselves decorating most of it.  There are still plenty of bare spots around the tree but that just leaves more room to add onto our ornament collection in the years to come.  We have a tradition of buying a new ornament or two each year and that's something we still have to do for this year.  We don't have many decorations for the house but what we have is enough.

 

 The angel that sits on top of our tree was a gift from my mother-in-law years ago.  She keeps watch over us during the Christmas season.  

The stockings are hanging from a shelf in our living room.  In the middle is our porcelain nativity scene, also from Mother-In-Law. 

 A little garland wraps around the bannister.  Excuse the boxes.  They have to go back in the attic.

And here's my homemade snowman behind the door.  I love this!  Thank you Pinterest!  

We have a collection of stuffed toys too.  The children had fun adding window cling stickers to the living room window.

Our next step is getting the outside decorating done but since my husband has been fighting a horrible cold he hasn't had the chance.  I love how the neighborhood homes are already setting up.

I started a new tradition with the kids.  I bought them each an advent calendar.  Every day you open up a door and there is a small chocolate candy surprise.  My uncle bought one for me when I was little and I've been wanting to do the same for my kids.  I also found an advent calendar you can do with Bible verses but we have some catching up to do there.

Also, this time of year means lots of food, candy, cake, pies, etc. will be consumed.  A good reason to break a sweat with the 30 Day Challenge.