Wonderful Christmastime

Christmastime is here!

This is such a wonderful time of year.  Putting up the Christmas tree makes the house feel so cozy. The soft glow of the lights is sort of magical.  I just watched the movie You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan the other day, and I love the scenes where she's decorating for the holidays.  More twinkle lights seem to be the solution for her problems.  She has the right idea.  Twinkle lights can make anything better not to mention they are so pretty.  Twinkle lights are one of the things I love about putting up the Christmas tree.  I also like putting up the tree because it's always so much fun to go through boxes of ornaments that I haven't seen in a year.  It brings back sweet memories.  I can remember where almost all of our ornaments have come from. 

When we first married we inherited a really large Christmas tree that almost filled up an entire corner of our living room.  I loved that tree but once Will was old enough to walk it was time for that tree to be retired.  Since we've had kids we've had a smaller tree that can be set on a table out of reach of the little ones.  Last year Ben was about six months old and crawling so we still had the smaller tree.  This year I was brave (or insane) and decided to put up a normal size tree.  I'm still debating on if this was a good decision or not.  If we don't watch him closely he terrorizes the tree.  No exaggeration :)

We bought this fake tree last year at the after Christmas sale at Target.  We put it in the attic without opening it and had faith that it would all be there.  We were very happy to see that all of the pieces were there this year. 

Our Christmas Tree 2010

My favorite ornaments are the funky handmade ones from our grandmothers.

Mark's grandma, Mamaw Morrow, made this one. 

This crocheted wreath was made by my grandma's aunt.  I always called her Aunt Rene.  She would have been my great-great-aunt.  She was a sister to my grandma's mother, Mama Lynn.

The charming rocking horse was one of my favorite ornaments as a kid.

This Aggie ornament was a gift from a friend when I was in college.  Whoop! 

I have a hodgepodge of ornaments from over the years.

The one thing I notice most is that I really like snowmen.  

I have several photo frames with photos of the boys.

My great-grandmother's sewing machine with a few holiday decorations.

I've written about her machine here.

Our front door

All decor purchased at the after-Christmas sale at Target.

Will loves these bells. 

On the inside of the front door.

I think I bought this on sale at Cracker Barrel last year. 

If you thought to yourself, she meant Crate and Barrel not Cracker Barrel, you're wrong :)  I love Crate and Barrel, but Cracker Barrel has cute and affordable decorations on sale just before and after Christmas.  I actually really like to pop in every now and then and browse.  Also, on vacation I love to stop there and eat whenever we're on road trips.

We received the "My Very First Christmas" frame as a gift just after Will was born.

I found a similar frame for Ben last year. 

While unpacking our Christmas decorations I came across this box of vintage Christmas ornaments and decorations that were from my grandparent's home.  I remember so many of these as a kid growing up.