The tree's up!!!!

There are so so many things I love about Christmas and the whole holiday season. Probably my favorite thing is our holiday party and the baking and prep that goes into that--it provides for me the perfect blend of hurry up, get everything done, so you can relax once the party is over! combination. But my second favorite thing is putting up our Christmas tree and getting to enjoy it for the entire month leading up to Christmas. For that reason, we put the tree up immediately after Thanksgiving--this year J's parents had a sleepover with the kids on Black Friday so J and I had a nice time leisurely browsing the mall and then when we came home, J put up the tree and I started putting decorations around the house.

Then, when the kids came back from Grammie and Grampy's house, it was time to decorate the tree. Pulling out all the ornaments is so much fun--from the ornaments we've received as gifts (including one we got last year from A & M with all four of our names on it) to the ornaments we've picked out for the kids to the themed ornaments the kids get from Grammie and Grampy (angels for R and snowmen for RUS) to the various crafts they've made over the last few years, it's just great. Our tree is a hodgepodge of clashing ornament styles and I couldn't love it more.