Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree!

The Holiday Season is upon us, my friends!  

This brings me so much pleasure! 

It is, without a doubt, THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF YEAR! 

I usually wait for Christmas music, Christmas decorations and Christmas tree decorating until Black Friday, but this year was different for 3 reasons.  1) Thanksgiving is so dang late this year, that if it were any other year, Thanksgiving would already be over and so yes, my house would have been decorated by now anyway.  2) Even though we were only living in somebody else's home for 3 1/2 months, the feeling of settling down and moving into our own home right when it started to get cold outside had me itching to settle in AND bring out some Holiday cheer (I already had to endure October without digging out my Christmas decorations and I just couldn't stand it any longer!). And 3) last year it was a little difficult for me to get into the Holiday spirit because I was so large and painfully pregnant with Piper that all I could think was "PLEASE GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME!"  I remember huffing and puffing as I hastily put up our Christmas decorations and being so nervous that I'd fall over and hurt something (or someone) as I stood on tall chairs to hang lights and garland while not being able to see my feet....it was a mess.  So I feel like I skipped out a little last year.  I definitely had reason to celebrate a week before Christmas though, when Piper finally did arrive.  But until then I just couldn't seem to muster up that Holly Jolly Mood.  So this year it's practically oozing out of me after being suppressed for so long.  Hence the reason why I started listening to Christmas tunes November 1st, changing Piper's nightly lullaby serenades to Christmas hymns (she HAS to be sung to while she drinks her nightly milk or else she won't drink it. So every night I rock her and sing to her) and I already have every inch of my house decorated in red, green and glitter :)

Anyway, we decorated our tree last Friday night with the girls and Lucy had such a good time.  She really did good hanging the ornaments on the tree!  She put them all in one clump (I don't have the heart to reorganize it because it makes me smile every time I see them) and had a blast doing it. Piper even got in on the action!  So far they haven't messed with the ornaments this year so it looks like we have a chance of keeping them on our tree all season long (last year they only lasted for a day)!  Hopefully next year we can buy a real tree, but for now- this tree has been perfect for our little family.  It was given to us by Dan and Tiff our first Christmas together and it's a cute little treasure that I'm extremely thankful for! I'm blogging about the tree now because we have a LOT coming up this season.  Thanksgiving, Piper's Birthday, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve and every Holiday moment in between.  So I know I will have lots to blog about and thousands of pictures to take.... (sadly, I'm not exaggerating.  One event sometimes produces over 100 pictures...thank goodness for that "delete" button!)

Lucy's clump of stars and other ornaments :)

So I'm starting off the Holiday blogging escapades a little early this year so that I don't fall behind!  

As you can see, we've even started our Holiday Crafts a little early as well :)

And our Holiday Cookie baking....

Only 29 days til' Santa gets here!

Lastly.....

Look at the difference this year has made in my sweet "Christmas Baby" :)  

 Happy Holidays everyone!