The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I'm back & ready to attempt to post every other day or so. Some minor changes will still be made to the blog in the next few weeks such as adding networking info (twitter, fb). You can navigate through the blog a lot easier using the navigational bar at the top of the page. Having a little guy is busy and making it a lot harder to post consistently but most of all, it's that I just want to enjoy every little moment with him.. but I'll share more on that later!

(These pictures are low quality due to being taken on my phone. So Sorry.)

 Well, I don't know about your family but Noland & I started playing Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving. We put up our tree, stockings and all the magic. We could have waited a little while but he had off the whole week of Thanksgiving and it was just easier to go ahead and start the decorating! As a Catholic, I don't consider it to be Christmas just yet though. It's what we call Advent... preparation for Christ's coming at birth. No worries, Christmas will soon arrive and Catholics don't take all their decorations down the day after Christmas because Christmas is such an important holiday in the eyes of the church, it should be celebrated at least 12 days ending on January 6. The Epiphany! So growing up, we usually kept our decorations up until them and we probably will this year too.

 One of our favorite places is to visit the Christmas store... we bought 2 ornaments this year and plan on buying one every year to add a little here and there to our tree. I can't wait til the little man is older so he can enjoy it more! They had all these fun colored trees there too, which I felt the need to take a picture of. 

Noland picked out this adorable little outfit for baby at Target! Don't you just want to pinch his little cheeks?

 Also, here is a shot of our tree. Usually a shelf goes their with a cross over it.. and I didn't take the cross off the wall because I just like it. And we got our 1970 blinds on the left, gotta love 'em.

 The best part of putting up Christmas decor, is that baby boy absolutely loves staring at the tree. He will get fussy sometimes so I just place him on the floor or in his papasan and he will stare at the tree like it is magical. Now that we have the little guy, I feel like Christmas is going to be so exciting again. The mystery of Santa, the magic of all the holiday lights & music, and the birth of our Lord and Savior. It's all so wonderful.

This really is the most wonderful time of the year. People are so much more friendly in the giving season. I love shopping for others and being creative. I love the music and the smiles on children's faces. I love the decorations! And we live in the south, so the weather is pretty perfect too.. not too hot, not too cold. 

What's your favorite thing about the holidays?