It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!

I love my wood-burning fireplace. It's hard to pinpoint my favorite part of the new house, but this was a pretty big plus!

We've been completely flattened by chicken pox this month. The benefit of the illness (if you can call it that) is that my schedule was completely wiped for 2 weeks as we gave the kidlets a chance to heal, and all of us a chance to rest up.

And a beautiful side effect of that quarantine? Christmas decorating!! :D Banisters are wrapped in pine, little lights are twinkling everywhere, my village is up, and tonight we set up the first of our 2 (!!) trees! The second will come mid-December, as we're planning on doing one fake, and one real.

I love Christmas. I love everything about it. Spiritually I celebrate the birth of baby Jesus. We celebrate the gift given to us by God. I love the services at Church, and I never get tired hearing the Christmas story. Beyond that, it's also a time for my family to get together (my brother, who is the only one who lives out-of-province, comes home every year) and hang out. It's a time for parties and celebration, and getting together with people I might not otherwise see for awhile. I love decorating. I love baking, and cooking, and planning and hosting. And crafting. And decorating, but I think I already mentioned that. I also will happily admit I LOVE gift-giving. I love brainstorming, planning, shopping, hiding, and wrapping. I LOVE to wrap gifts. I love winter. I love watching snow fall outside while I stay in my pajamas and drink tea and play with the kids, and the magic and warmth of Christmas just adds to that.

I love that we have a wood-burning fireplace this year. I love that our fire isn't going to be provided by the TV (yes, I also love the yule-log channel) but by actual crackling wood. This is going to be the first Christmas in our new home, and the first year we're not running around all crazy-like (in-laws will all be out of town this year). I'm excited to start reading Santa's Favorite Story (my friend let me in on it a few years ago - Santa tells his animal friends about the story of Jesus. It's brilliant!) I'm excited for the Christmas services, and for singing carols, and I'm excited for Christmas morning, when Princess and Tobes see all the gifts.

I love Christmas :) And I love that it's just a few more weeks away!

My Christmas Village. The front room of my house is the PERFECT space for it, and it makes me smile every time I walk through the door!