So, I just finished wrapping all of our Christmas gifts and only have 4 left to buy-all of which are gift cards! Yay! My goal is always to finish my shopping early, so that I can ENJOY Christmas! As I was wrapping presents, I began thinking about this time last year and how much can happen in a year. This time last year I was pregnant and we were only weeks away from finding out what we were having. I remember having so much anticipation as I wondered if it was a boy or a girl!!! The Christmas before last, we were one day into our engagement. It is truly awesome how great our God is and how much He blesses us from year to year. For those of you who don't know me, Christmas is my most favorite time of the year (college football is a close second of course). I am somewhat of a fanatic, but I came by it honestly, as my mom is about 10 steps above fanatic. I guess you could say that Christmas is in my genes:)
As a child, I always got so excited when Christmas was approaching...and in large part because my mom was so excited. She made Christmas extra fun by decorating everything that didn't have a pulse in our home. Every single Christmas item had it's own perfect spot in our home, and we all got quite good at knowing where that perfect spot was. My favorite decorating activity was decorating the "den tree". You may ask, why do I have to differentiate? Well, that is because my mom put up five trees. Yes, you read right...FIVE trees. If that doesn't sound like a lot of trees...please understand that our home was far from a monstrosity of a home. The "den tree" was basically the family tree. It was full of ornaments that had been given to each of us, our handmade ornaments and ornaments that we had picked out. It was also home to the lights with the bubbling candles. Does anyone else remember these??? 
They were truly my favorite! I think I grieved when they finally stopped working and we no longer hung them on the tree.
They were truly my favorite! I think I grieved when they finally stopped working and we no longer hung them on the tree.
My sweet Mom and Dad gave my two older brothers and I an ornament every year of our life-and they wrote on the bottom of the ornament our name and the year it was given (in Sharpie of course!) When each of us got our own homes, they gave us our box of ornaments to have for our own tree. I plan on doing this for Will-and have gone a little overboard with this being his first Christmas!-ha. I also want to continue a tradition that Cullen and I have started of going to the Alabama Theater in Birmingham to see "It's a Wonderful Life". If you have never been to the theater...you must go. It is extremely fun and old-fashioned and it is even more fun at Christmas. If you have never seen "It's a Wonderful Life", then crawl out of the hole in which you live and watch it! There is really nothing that gets me more in the Christmas spirit than singing Christmas carols with a theater full of strangers, eating popcorn and hearing Jimmy Stewart say, "That a boy Clarence". Christmas traditions start early and my prayer is that I never let the stress of Christmas take away from creating memories for our children...ones they will cherish.
Love me some George Bailey!!!
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