Are you so over Christmas? Well sorry, I know this is a little late, but this is really just for the benefit of this being like an online scrapbook.

This year, we started celebrating Christmas before the Thanksgiving turkey made it into the oven. I remember how magical Christmas was as a child. As I got older, it lost some of its sparkle and I decided to try my best to bring it back. We put up our tree super early, decorated the house to the nines, made our own decorations, had several Christmas photo sessions, saw Santa 3 times (he’s super busy!), cooked a lot, listened to the Chipmunk’s Christmas albums (vol. 1 & 2) every time we got in the car, enjoyed Christmas shopping, talked about the real meaning of Christmas and did an advent calendar, watched Christmas movies, read Christmas books, sang Christmas carols at the top of our lungs in the Walmart parking lot, and squeezed out every last drop of Christmas joy possible.

And treasured every second of it.

My brother (the 22 year old Marine) flew in Christmas Eve to spend the holiday with us. We really enjoyed having him and the boys are forever in love with their Uncle Logan. I even enjoyed taking the tree down… the weekend after the New Year. The boys helped and it was fun and less of a chore.

The point is, from now on I will be making extra effort to make Christmas at our house as special as possible. Not just for the kids, but for us, too. I guess I better start planning for next year. 🙂

Ice Skating Part 1

Ice Skating Part 2

Peanut Butter Pie

Home Made Christmas Garland

Advent Calendar

Alston as Santa

Alston & Uncle Logan

Eli & Aunt Katelyn

My First Venison Roast = Success