Christmas is Coming!

Don't you just love Christmas? We do at our house. My kids had a ball helping me decorate the house for Christmas. Here they are in their Christmas pajamas in front of our tree. Here's another picture of our tree, which we have had since Tim and I married almost 14 years ago. I am so glad to be finished with our shopping and other Christmas preparations. Now I can just enjoy this wonderful season and its true meaning -- Jesus!

Anna Kate adding an ornament to the tree.

Emma is still putting ornaments on the tree. She loves taking them off and putting them back on. So far no broken ones.

I am smart enough to put our special ornaments at the top out of reach. Here is a picture of some of our favorites, such as one I made as a child (the red angel) my mother made (the blue rocking horse), ones my kids have made (yellow star-Anna Kate and green wreath-Emma), and ones with our names on them that were given to us by my parents or Tim's parents. The two Precious Moments ornaments were given to my kids by Tim's parents on their first Christmases. My mother-in-law has the same ornaments on her tree in honor of Anna Kate and Emma. She has done this for all six of her grandkids. I think this is a neat tradition. The red and green fabric heart was made by my Grandma Janie. She made a bunch of these. Each one is uniquely made with different fabrics and lace. I always loved helping her put them on her's and PaPa's tree. After she died, my mother and I would put up a table top tree for PaPa with just these heart ornaments. He is gone now too, so I have a few of them on our tree in their honor.

Here's Anna Kate and Emma with the new ornaments my parents gave them this year. They are tiny snow globe ornaments with their names on them.

Besides the tree, we have some other special decorations. Here's Anna Kate with a few of my wooden Santas painted by Peggy Hawkins, the mother of one of my best friends, Mary Heather Hawkins Gibbs. I just love these Santas. My music cabinet also is decorated with them, and my mother has a ton of them too.

Mary Heather inherited her mother's talent for art. Anna Kate is holding a pottery plate that Mary Heather painted. I have several pieces she has done and each are so cute.

Here's the ceramic nativity set my mother made for my Grandma Martha. When she passed away, I was fortunate to receive it and am so proud to display it in my home.

My mother made this ceramic tree for Granny. Now that she is living in a smaller home, she passed it on to me.

Emma is sitting next to one of four Christmas pillows my Aunt Pat made for me and Tim when we married Christmas 1994. I have decorated with them each year since then.

We have new decorations too. Here's our stocking holder. The girls love checking to see if anything is in the stockings. Of course, they won't find anything there until Christmas morning after Santa has visited our house.

My kids love this Fisher Price Little People Nativity set that we purchased a few years ago. It's nice that they have their own to play with so they won't break the ceramic set my mother made.

Here's a picture of our outside trees. I have them set on a timer so they will light up at dusk each night. My kids love coming home each evening to find them already on.

One last picture. Here are the girls with their little, pink tree with Princess, Barbie, and My Little Pony ornaments.