Christmas Time!

Well, it's Christmas time at our house. I spent the whole day Sat. Christmasing up the house and it was great! I love Christmas and can't wait to decorate every year. My personal opinion is any time after Halloween is free game. I have such a wonderful husband, who shakes his head disapprovingly and then lugs all the boxes for me and helps me string lights. I really appreciate that he lets me be crazy.

The whole family got into the decorating.
Levi loved every minute and was a big help.

Ellie was completely fascinated and had a fabulous time trying to reach all the pretties. She wanted to get a hold of the tree box SO bad.

This is the little tree we got to set up in the kids room. I let Levi have free reign over this tree. The ornaments on it are the ones I've gotten for the kids each year. The only downfall is that it's very unstable. Steve is going to screw it to the little end table it sits on to keep it from falling over. (I should mention, it was a little, old table we had in the garage and weren't using. I'm not screwing it down to on of our good tables.) Until then, I keep having to get after Levi for touching it, which makes me sad, I want him to be able to play with it if he wants.

Finally, our big tree. I love this tree. It's seven years old now and every year when we get it out I think about how much I love it. It's big, fake and still looks nice and full.
I ordered us personalized stockings and can't wait until they come so I can put them up. I neglected to take a picture of my nativity area. I put all of our nativities (4 and a "Christmas Story" book) on the top of the book shelf. I've also spread my Christmas snow globes throughout the living room. Christmas decorating makes me so happy! I like doing it early so that I get to enjoy it for a little while longer.
Now, I just need to get the presents wrapped and under the tree. I only have about 4 people left to buy for and then I'm totally done. Can I just tell you that the presents are my least favorite part of Christmas. I never know what to tell people when they ask me what Steve, me, and the kids want. We never need anything and I try not to think to much about wants because I find them slightly depressing. So, I end up telling them nothing and feeling bad that I wasn't more helpful, because I know where they're coming from. I hate buying for people when I don't know what to get them. I don't want to get people junk that they won't use. I want to get thoughtful, useful, meaningful gifts. This puts a lot of stress on my Christmas shopping. So, by the time I'm done shopping, I'm stressed out and feel bad about my relationships with people, that I don't have better ideas about what kind of gifts would make them happy. Anyway, this is why I like to get it done early, because once all the presents are bought I can sit back and enjoy, family togetherness, good food, and the wonderful Christmas spirit.
Thanks for reading.