It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

I am so into "whimsical" Christmas stuff this year. Like this "Jolly" sign on the wreath on our front door, and the "Merry" sign I used in our Christmas card picture. Red, Turquoise, Pink and Lime Green. LOVING those retro holiday colors this year! We just recently watched the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and I was like "I love Dr Seuss! Look at all those awesome colors!" I think I was meant to live in Whoville this season.

Cookies Cookies Cookies

It's not Christmas without cookies! I love to bake and to share some yummy, tummy love with our friends and neighbors. The girls and I have been baking for about 3 days straight! I think they are over it now, but I still have a couple more tins to fill. Matt gets annoyed that I do all this baking and none if it stays in the house. He always wants to nibble on one or two when they come out of the oven, and I am too anal to let him indulge. I have a number in my head of how many of each kind I need - and until I am there, I do not like to share! I promised to make him his own batch of Chocolate Chip when I am all done!

Christmas Cards! Can you find yours?

What a joy it is this time of year, to go to the mailbox with the girls every afternoon and get our mail. We take turns opening the cards and talking about who each one is. If there is a letter with the picture, we sit down and I read it to them. We pray and thank God for our special friends who sent us love in the mail that day. Then we take the pictures and put them up on our back door, right by our kitchen table. So we can see them and enjoy them the whole month thru. We mail out a LOT of Christmas cards, and every year I think "This is a lot of work!" But then when we start getting all these cards in return, I am SO glad we do it.

Our Christmas Tree

It's a little Charlie Brownish this year. First, it's smaller than we usually get - but I figured with the dog, daycare kids running around, and not a lot of room in our living room as it is - this was not they year for a big tree. Second, we let the girls put on all the ornaments they could reach, wherever and however they wanted, and left them that way. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the bottom of the tree is loaded with ornaments and the top of the tree is sparse. Also - some places have two or three to a branch and others none. But they had so much fun doing it, and that's what it's all about, right?