Holiday Cheers!

The tree is up, the house is filled with Christmas cheer, the music is going and the parties are scheduled, but wait!  I forgot to do one little thing.  Oh yeah, I haven't started a single bit of Christmas Shopping still.  This is SO not like me, but it is what it is and I will roll with it and hopefully I will roll in with some gifts when I do.  

Decorating this year was fun and it gets better and better every year as my girls understand more about Christmas and get into the Christmas spirit.  

This year our family ornament is bears.  It is getting harder and harder to find groups of six we do not already have, but we came across this and loved it.  I have a bag for every year since 1997 that holds special ornaments just for that year.  The one from 1997 is one I gave Brian with a letter titled the "Christmas Promise" and we read it allowed to the girls to commence the decorating.  We go through every year's bag saying what important things happened that year and they get to put their own ornaments on the tree that Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Gene get them.  Journey, of course, gets a little inpatient having to wait all the way to 2009!!  But, it is a great tradition that we always look forward to.  So here we have our big, full family ornament for this year right next to the small pewter one with just Brian and I engraved on it from our first Christmas together.

The living room looks beautiful and it is great to walk downstairs in the early morning and be greeted by such warmth.  The girls like to play around it and play Santa on the less than usual cold days we have had.

This tree and rockin' Santa, that you can often find paired with a child, is from Brian's Grandfather who passed last year.  I love having a holiday decoration in the house from a loved one who has passed on to remind us and to celebrate them this season even when they are not physically here.  I know my dad was a collector of sorts of anything Christmas and has loads of things my mom is brooding through.  Maybe we can get a piece from him as well.  

I pray all of you are having a beautiful build up of your holiday season and enjoying the time together.  Gotta run!  I have to go get some shopping done now!