I still haven't decided how I feel about our house being bare of Christmas trees once again. We took down all the decor on New Year's Eve, and everything feels extra fresh, clean and white. :) We're all enjoying the extra square footage again, but I sure did miss turning on all those tree lights the last couple of nights. January and February can be hard months for me mentally so I'm doing my darndest to not let myself slip into the familiar feeling of winter blues. And to help - I'll be blogging about all things Christmas for a while I think. ;)
This holiday season flew by as I knew it would, but it felt like the Christmas season I'd waited my whole life for. My family finally complete, my girl on my hip, five stockings on the mantle, a home that we continue to fall more in love with with each home improvement project. I look back at our memories from the past one-two months, and they all look so simple but felt so perfect. Having a small baby around might mean less adventure and more time tucked away at home, but there was no place I'd rather be - no way I would have rather spent our festive season. Warm, cozy, safe and complete. That's how our December felt.
|| Our first Christmas card as a family of five.
|| Decorating Kaitlyn's nursery for Christmas. I had dreams of a white tree, white lights, and all the pink touches. We adorned her tree with small gold and shimmery pink ornaments from Target, a pretty pink tree skirt, and a simple gold star. Her room looked beautiful and adorable all at the same time, and it was her tree that I was most sad to put away for the year. Brandon was eager to help hang all of her new ornaments, and this was the best way to celebrate an otherwise ordinary mid-week evening.
|| Morning snuggles after slowly unpacking all the Christmas boxes. The torch of Santa traditions is getting passed on to the youngest of us, and I'm so grateful for several more years ahead of cookies for Santa and letters mailed to the North Pole. :)
|| We decorate the kids' rooms before the rest of the house in order to spread out the work and add some happy to their bedrooms when the sun starts setting at 5:00pm. Brandon looks forward to this process every year, and I love how Jaden's tree looked in his new room.
|| But the boys are definitively growing up and were less interested in helping me hang ornaments on our big tree this year! They mostly watched and took care of the baby while I did all of the work. ;)
|| Tummy time and floor play was made even better when done by tree light. I love the way the lights twinkled in her eyes all season long, and there's nothing better than a baby in Christmas jammies. :)
|| One of the favorite items we unpack with our holiday decor every year are these Christmas card books that I make. Each year when we put away the decor, I make sure all of our Christmas cards we received in the mail for that season get hole punched and added to this book so that we can look at them for years to come. The boys especially love looking back at old images of how their friends have grown throughout the years, and it's fun to walk down that memory lane every season.
|| Black Friday. We don't shop unless it's done from our pajamas in front of our computer screen. :) And though the boys weren't real interested in helping me with our tree, they always look forward to helping Papa and Nana with theirs. ;)
|| Our visit to see Santa! Cody's company has a Christmas tree farm that we absolutely love, and Santa likes to spend his weekends there until all of the trees sell. (Which this year - only took one weekend!) Jaden was a trooper to sit on Santa's lap and help introduce his sister to him... and Kaitlyn didn't cry but did give a whole lot of side-eye. ;)
|| Cozy reading spots by the trees and babies in Christmas dresses.
|| Gingerbread houses! We skipped them last year due to my horrible first trimester sickness, and I was pretty surprised that Jaden was really into it this year. Of course all the candy got eaten off of his roof within about two days. ;) But Brandon's house stayed put in his room until Christmas was over!
|| My birthday gift to myself. A new Keurig! It makes cappuccinos and lattes and iced coffees and normal coffees, and I just love it. ;)
|| I baked a different batch of cookies every weekend in December, but these were our favorites. I know they'll be looking forward to them all year long.
|| Friday night movie nights - a December tradition. (And sometimes Sunday nights, too!) With hot cocoa and popcorn and a different Christmas movie every week. The Christmas Chronicles, Elf, The Star, Christmas Vacation, Elf, The Polar Express... and Christmas with the Kranks. Some of our traditional favorites and some new ones, too.
|| All three of my kids in their Christmas jammies. I don't care how old they get... when they come home for Christmas, they will be forced to don the jammies. ;)
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