Scrooge be gone

I really drug my feet with decorating for Christmas this year. I just didn't feel like dealing with the clutter....there, I said it. I know that is SUCH a Scrooge thing to say and Nate called me the Grinch for a week or so when I whined about the whole process. It's just that when you live in a small-ish place, digging out Christmas decor from different storage places in the house (ie in the very back of our one storage closet, behind a giant spare bed...other boxes...random crap, you get the point) is less than appealing. Not to mention that to display our Christmas tree we have to completely rearrange our small family room and get rid of a side table. I know, I know, it's not that bad but I was just feeling Scrooge-like the whole first week of December.

This past weekend, I bit the bullet and told Nate we should decorate the house. His face lit up like a little boy and I knew I was being a big baby about the whole thing because it really ISN'T that bad of a process. No, this year I did not get to top off my cup of coffee with some nice Starbucks liqueur....nor did I get to partake in a satisfying glass of vino. But it was still fun and I'm glad we did it.

The best part about Christmas is getting to spend time with family, wouldn't you agree? This year we will make the 8 hour drive down to Mid-Missouri to spend time with my family and I cannot freaking wait. We'll do Christmas with my in-laws when we come back, over New Years and it really works out nicely this way because we get TWO big celebrations. But family: it's what the best Christmas memories are made of, in my opinion. Nate had a great quote when we were decorating the tree when he said, 'I guess this is the last year Christmas will be about us. From now on it will be about our little man.' So true! Cannot wait!

Onto a few pictures! We have approximately 1,221,542,090 ornaments to hang on our tree so I'll refrain from showing you pictures of each one. But remember how my mom is awesome and sent me my yearly ornaments she's collected from each year of my life? Well, Nate's mom gave him most of his, too, so just our childhood ornaments could fill up a whole tree. Then come our 'newer' ornaments we've purchased together over the years, gifted ornaments, and the standard pretty bulbs. Someday we will own a large house and I promised Nate we'd have two trees: one for all of our 'vintage' childhood ornaments, and one for newer ones. Until then, the blend between new memories and old ones make for a pretty pimped out tree.

Sock Monkey is new, and adorable:

Starbucks red cup is new and makes me salivate. Isn't it cute? We have four of them:)

And I made this one to fill an empty frame ornament. Don't worry, I totally messed up and forgot that our first US was in August, not July. And it was at 9 weeks. But whatev, right? Still adorable.

Our DIY stockings:

Hurricane vase without wine corks and instead, with my 'girlie' ornaments I had before marriage (before my hot pink, aqua and purple theme went out the window)

And my DIY banner....which, by the way, we are supposed to get 8-14" in the next day or so. Yippee!

I tried to forgo the outside decor but dear Nate took it upon himself this year to brave the cold and slap some garland with a giant wreath up there. And let's not forget about my beloved DIY wreath on the door. Nor the adorable white puppy staring out at you from behind the glass:

Ah, Christmas. Good to have you here again:

Then come the Henry-in-front-of-the-tree pictures. Since I didn't have my 50mm f/1.8 lens last year, I figured I should go a little crazy with the bokeh from the lights this year. Sigh. I just love these shots. Henry is not thrilled, but he's still stinking adorable:

Don't you love how his little chest is about to bust through this suit? He HATES it with a passion. I actually took a video of him hating life with the Santa suit. Someday I'll figure out how to upload a video clip here.

So it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. Can you believe it's that time again? Where does the time go?