Things I like about Christmas...

Just a few thoughts about the little things I enjoy about Christmas...

Shopping for presents for others. I have really enjoyed that this year and have a mere handful of things to pick up before I can complete my wrapping for the year! This year a lot of ideas came to our heads and we hope that people enjoy what we have picked out for them. Hopefully Mac won't pull all the presents out and unwrap them before we can give them to the recepients!

Decorating the Christmas tree. Matt and I don't usually buy souveniers when we go places, but we do try to find an ornament when visiting a new place or when we have a "big" change in our lives. When we decorate the tree we talk about the ornaments (briefly) while we place them on the tree. We need to write down where and why we got the ornaments before they increase in number too much. Our deocrating this year has been ongoing and I love the new tradition. We have a somewhat sparse tree (not sparse in ornaments, but sparse in branches (it was a cheap fake tree...what did you expect). So when we receive a Christmas card we have been placing the card in the branches to keep it on display. I thought it was a rather clever idea!

People make an extra effort to get together over the holidays which we love. We work really hard all year to keep up with family and friends...sometimes that is reciprocated, sometimes it isn't, but we never feel jilted or cheated of social time around the holidays.

The smells of cinamon, pine, baked goods, and crisp cold air... Sometimes we are lacking the last one...like right now...come on cold weather!

Something new this year... I will be going to my first Christmas Eve service that I can remember. We never went as far as I recall as kids and since we will be in town this year and we are plugged in to our church, we are going to the service. I hope it is as joyful as my mind is playing it up to be.

I am enjoying creating new traditions and things that I like for our home and for our family. I am sure there will be plenty more to come!