I hope that you’ve had an enjoyable Christmas day!

We are blessed to have children who don’t wake up extraordinarily early on Christmas day. However, when we went to get them out of their room this morning, one of them said, “I hope the presents are worth all the trouble I had sleeping last night!”

The doll beds were a hit; both girls listed them as one of their favorite gifts. I had fun experimenting with our new camera while our nine-year-old took her own shots with our old one.

After opening presents and eating breakfast, we spent the morning relaxing, with the rain beating against the windows and the wind blowing in strong gusts, eventually sending our neighbor’s patio table umbrella scurrying into our yard. The afternoon was spent washing, ironing, cleaning and packing in preparation for our out-of-state trip to visit family tomorrow. We’ll be gone for several days and my husband and I are planning to spend one night in Williamsburg, Virginia, by ourselves while our daughters stay with my parents.

Due to being out-of town, my posting here will be a bit sporadic over the next few days, but I’m hoping to get some great pictures to share and maybe spend a little time finding some super after-Christmas bargains to “brag” about!!

I wanted to take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas to each one of you!!

Since starting this blog in February, I have met so many wonderful people who offer both inspiration and encouragement. From my friend and faithful commenter Beth to Mikki at The Not So Perfect Housewife to Sheyenne, whom I only recently met and who is traveling a road similar to the one we went down with our Angel, to Darcy Lee, who gives me a glimpse into what life might be like when our daughters are older, I appreciate each one of you who read my posts, follow and subscribe to my blog, and those who are brave enough to add their comments!

Finally, a big thank you to all my real-life friends who humor me by visiting here and finding out more about me than they ever wanted to know!!

May each of you enjoy time with family, celebrating your blessings and the greatest gift ever given – Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

I have always loved the Christmas season. The lights, the decorations, the spirit of giving seem to put me in a happy frame of mind. While the list of things I enjoy about Christmas could certainly be longer, I’ve narrowed it down to my favorite five.

1. The music. Admittedly, I like to wait until at least the day after Thanksgiving before I start hearing it, but from then on, I enjoy listening to it wherever I am. From Christmas carols to cartoon songs (like Frosty the Snowman, which has words that I can never remember, no matter how many times I hear it!) to traditional favorites like Carol of the Bells and everything in between (think Christmas in Dixie and Tennessee Christmas), listening to the music of the season is a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. Since I’ve limited myself to five items, I’ll include one of my all-time favorite Christmas specials here, since I like the music in it, too – A Charlie Brown Christmas, “must-see tv” every year!
2. The sales. Whether I’m shopping for myself 🙂 or family and friends, I can certainly appreciate the additional coupons, free shipping offers and deeper discounts.
3. The food. Ah, if only I had the same metabolism now as I did in my teen years! At every turn, there is a chance to celebrate and most of those festivities involve food. I’m trying to enjoy it by choosing my truly favorite delicacies and partaking of them in smaller portions, while totally bypassing other not-so-healthy choices.
4. The family time. As I mentioned previously, we had a wonderful time last Friday night at a musical theatre production of A Christmas Carol. Last night my husband and I enjoyed watching the girls participate in their school Christmas concert and this coming Monday, they will each play a song at their piano recital. While our calendar tends to be full during this month, so many of the events are made special by the fact that we attend them together.
5. The meaning. Christmas involves a host of festivities, but those that point us to the birth of Jesus Christ are the most meaningful. The nativity set in our home, the church Christmas program, our reading of Luke chapter two on Christmas Eve, along with other things, keep foremost in our minds the true reason for the season.

Visit Living to Tell the Story to see Favorite Five lists that others have shared.

A week filled with two birthdays, a visit from family and other Christmas activities is sure to provide plenty of lessons!

1. If you are trying to rearrange your overflowing freezer to accommodate an ice cream cake, and yank on a bag of frozen peas that you want to move out of your way, the bag might split, causing green peas to litter the floor, rolling under the refrigerator and into every other nook and cranny imaginable.
2. When you realize that your butane lighter is totally empty and you have nothing else in the house with which to light birthday candles, you will be extremely thankful that your hunter husband keeps an emergency pack in his truck with matches in it.
3. The amount of food that I eat is directly proportional to the number of sweets in the house.
4. Taking your seven-year-old, who loves to shop, on a mission to find a pair of boots (to replace the ones she received for her birthday that didn’t fit) will result in your coming home with two pair since she couldn’t decide which ones she liked better! Thank goodness for a buy-one, get-one 50% off sale and some extra birthday money she didn’t mind spending!!
5. It is so worth it to drive downtown on a rainy Friday night so that your family can enjoy a two-hour musical theatre production of A Christmas Carol. Seeing your nine-year-old enthralled by the entire show makes you want to do it all over again!
6. It is spiritually rewarding to realize anew that the Holy Spirit continually works in me to grow me into the person that Christ would have me to be.

Visit Musings of a Housewife where others share what they have learned this week.

I do not normally spend much time decorating my home for the seasons, but I do attempt to bring a bit of Christmas spirit to certain areas of the house.

There is the wreath on the front door that reappears every year.

We have the traditional “stockings….hung by the chimney with care….”

…. and a little arrangement on the piano.

My treasured nutcracker, brought to me from Germany by an old friend, livens up the mantel.

Our daughters enjoy counting down the days until Christmas with our Advent calendar.

This nativity set, which was also a gift from friends, is one that we’ve had for years and reminds us of the real reason that we celebrate Christmas.

I’m keeping an eye out for a good deal on a small tree that we could put up in the girls’ room. Do you have Christmas decorations throughout your home? If you’ve written a post about them, please leave a link in the comments so that we can admire your handiwork!

Visit Celebrate the Holidays for more Christmas inspiration then go to Show and Tell Friday, Hooked on Houses, The Inspired Room, Home for the Holidays and Nesting Place to see how others are decorating their homes for the season.

Unpacking the Christmas tree ornaments each year is like a trip down memory lane. In many ways, these small tokens mark the passage of our lives.

This one was given to me by my best friend in high school in our senior year – over twenty years ago (yikes!)

There are a good many from my teaching days…..

These days, our tree is filling up with a variety of handmade ornaments that our two daughters add each year, treasures that will someday mark the passing years of their lives.

Is your tree filled with some special, memorable ornaments? Let me know what some of your favorites are!

Today was the day for decorating the Christmas tree! It’s imperative for me to set the mood for this task by playing Christmas music, so I put on a cd and pulled my Christmas tubs out of the storage closet.

I always forget how much I dislike putting on the lights – maybe because I like lots of them! My husband bought another box of lights for me at Lowe’s this morning, so there are six hundred of them on the tree – but I think it could still use some more!

I have never put ribbon on the tree in this way before, but had seen it done somewhere, so thought I would give it a try. My eight-year-old (who was lying on the couch watching me) said she wasn’t “too fond of the idea!”

Next came our daughters’ favorite part – hanging the ornaments! We have a system whereby they hand me an ornament, I put the hook on it and then tell them the general area on the tree where I would like it to be hung – front, back or sides. Now that they’re getting older, they can arrange the ornaments pretty well for me.

It took awhile to get it all done, but now we can enjoy it for the next month! I especially love how it looks when it’s lit up at night – it makes the room so cozy and “Christmasy!”

Visit Tackle It Tuesday to see the projects that others accomplished this week!

Here are some lessons learned during a week full of wet weather and plenty of activities.