Sharing in Laughter and Love: Very Merry Christmas 2014

My favorite time of the year has again come and gone. I anticipate the Christmas season months before it begins. This year, I began my preparations (from a shopping perspective) in August. I have so much fun browsing websites and stores looking for gifts for my kids and family--I assemble my list early and then strike while the iron's hot (usually Thanksgiving weekend and in the weeks prior to Christmas) for the best deals. I think I did pretty well this year.

In addition to shopping, I love love LOVE decorating my house. As soon as I see the first signs of Christmas in stores, I justify Christmas-ing my own home. This year we bought our new tree at Menards on the 1st of November and put it up that night. The following evening we decorated it. It was extra special this year because we're in our new home. Our first Christmas here had some pretty big expectations to meet (at least from me). The kids had a great time opening up the boxes full of their ornaments and finding the perfect places for them on the tree. We only had one casualty the whole time. It was Maggie's Minnie Mouse ornament she received as a gift last year. It was my fault for letting her hold it, but her persistence nearly drove me to insanity, so I gave it to her. She then attempted to "set" it in the tree--gravity did it's thing, and now Minnie is no more :(

We also put out a Christmas choo-choo decoration in the yard the kids picked out.

I think Maggie's little face says it all!

The remaining days in November and the rest of December were pretty busy. We did find time for family, fun, and celebration. I took a trip to Florida (to be highlighted in a separate post), we had school Christmas parties, cookie decorating, and visits to Santa.

My little cookie-making helpers!

Naughty or Nice?!?

Lucy even sat on Santa's lap!

Of course as the days leading up to Christmas grew fewer and fewer, all of our excitement grew. Christmas Eve was spent at our house with our families here to help decorate cookies and eat pizza. The kids opened up their Christmas Eve presents (pajamas), we put out cookies and juice for Santa, wrote Santa his letter, threw some reindeer food on the lawn, and then went to bed.

Santa, as always, found our new house--a detail that greatly concerned Max. He was good to the kids, again, as always. We had a wonderful day of exploring new treasures, celebrating the birth of Jesus, visiting families, and just being together.

I'll end with a string of pictures of our Christmas '14 festivities. It is safe to say that our first Christmas in our new house did, in fact, live up to the expectations of all!