It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...at least around my house it is! I took some of my time off over this long weekend to begin decorating the inside of my house. We have gotten live trees the last several years, but I wanted to begin my decorating this weekend,and its not safe to put up a real tree for over a month (usually I don't decorate the house until at lease one week into December), so I decided it was time to purchase a good quality artificial tree. So we went to Garden Ridge on Thanksgiving night, before meeting Brooke and Justin (her Boyfriend) for the movie Twilight, and picked out a tree. I picked a 7.5 foot "Spruce" and I am soooooo happy with my purchase! It looks great in the living room corner, where I have set it up. I love how big and tall it is! I like the look of an over sized tree. I used the collectible ornaments Steven and I have accumulated so far in our marriage, and the lovely red ornaments I purchased last year to give the tree an overall red look. I also set up our stockings on the mantle with my stocking holders that spell 'NOEL'(I'm not sure you can tell in the pic). Our stockings consist of a matching pair of monogrammed stockings for Steven and I, then the cute green stocking for Oliver, and the fun red one for Mandy, but hopefully next year at this time the dogs will have to share a stocking, because we will be adding a monogrammed one for a foster child who will hopefully be living with us.

Since this is only Steven's and my fourth Christmas as a married couple, decorating our own home, we are still trying to collect Christmas decor. One of the collections I am excited about working on is of my Santa figurines. I only have three so far, and I am displaying them on my kitchen counter, along with a mini-tree that I have no idea where it came from. It just showed up in all of our boxes of holiday decor after our house fire, when the restoration company returned all of our belongings to us. I was really excited when I began going through my boxes of

decor from the attic as well, I forgot about a purchase

I made last year on the day after Christmas shopping, and I found it, and it was like opening a present! I was giddy! Its the table runner shown on my kitchen table below. It's from Hallmark, and cost nearly $50 originally, but I paid only $24 for it last year, but that is still a high dollar item for something I can't use everyday for my cheap self. Isn't it cute?



Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
-Hamilton Mabie

Christmas! 'Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial fire of charity in the heart.
-Washington Irving

Christmas is my favorite time of the year, I am so excited for this holiday season!