Let the countdown begin!

We, at the Loveless home, have been struck head-on by the Christmas spirit! I am pleasantly surprised that I have had so much energy this year. As I was trying to pinpoint what has made this year different from all other sluggish Christmas seasons, I came to an interesting realization. For eight of the past nine Christmas seasons, I have either had morning sickness or an infant waking up to be fed through the night. Some people are very good at functioning with these minor infractions of babies, but it leached the Christmas spirit right out of me. Not this year :).




The tree is up and ready to go...almost. I spent a full day during Thanksgiving break putting the tree up and wrapping lights around every branch. Shame on me for doing it before Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't wait. This is our first year with this tree, and I had to make sure it was all there (ksl classifieds, love them). It goes so well with the ornaments we have collected through the years. It is a blue spruce style, and it reminds me of the Christmas trees we had growing up--but fake. It has the classic, vintage look that I love so much, so to play off of that style I decided to try making a popcorn/cranberry garland. I have one more strand to make for the bottom of the tree and then it will be practically perfect in every way.

(It's a bit blurry, but I love this picture of Maddie taking a break from jumping on the couch to gaze at the tree. My real project should be teaching her that our couch is not a trampoline.)

Our neighbor made this countdown candle for us, my kids are loving it. We have never had a candle countdown before, and I already have plans to make my own next year.

And the other side of their heads, and their cute smiles. I love Hannah's new "chiclets" teeth.

And here is my attempt to make our tree look "Thanksgiving-ish" to ease my guilt of putting the tree up early. We wrote the things that we were thankful for on construction paper turkey feathers, and hung them on the tree. Finally, John admitted that he wouldn't be too hurt if we decorated before his birthday on the 15th. He didn't have to tell me twice, up the decorations went!