It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

After weeks of anticipation, we finally got a substantial snowfall! Now we are ready for the Christmas season! On Friday morning, we picked up our Christmas tree at Whitings. And our Christmas tree this year means even more to us this year. Most of you know that we've been attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and heading into the Christmas season while ON BUDGET is challenging. And purchasing a Christmas tree - that we hadn't budgeted for and that we're just going to enjoy for a month and then throw out doesn't make a lot of sense in the Dave Ramsey world especially once we learned that Whiting's had increased their prices. Steve was prepared to spend whatever we needed to - he didn't want us going without a tree this year. Neither did I... but does it really fit in our budget? So, I prayed about it and decided that if we couldn't come up with the money and it wasn't it our budget, I was going to be okay without one. The very next day we received a card in the mail with a very generous amount of money! (THANK YOU OVER AND OVER!) AND... earlier in the fall I had brought several articles of clothes into a consignment shop and when I called to find out how much we had made... we had just enough to cover the rest of the Christmas tree. It was very liberating to go to Whitings with a price-point in mind, pay CASH, and be 67 cents under budget! Once again, this is an example of God's provision.

Amaya helped my mom earlier in the week decorating their Christmas tree and I though maybe the novelty would have worn off. But, she was just as excited to decorate our tree!

Getting the star on just right!

We bought Amaya a small artificial tree last year and she had a blast decorating it just the way she wanted. (And I refrained from moving and adjusting the ornaments!)

In our box of ornaments, she found a bunch of Steve's homemade ones - I think they look awesome on her tree!

Amaya definitely has the decorating gene in her system. She wanted to help me put branches in baskets all over the house.

Here's my "keeping it real" picture... I forgot how messy the house gets when we drag out all the Christmas decorations. It honestly looked like a Christmas explosion. I also think I have a little ADD when it comes to decorating... I'm here and there and back again and it takes forever for any progress to really get made... Oh, well... it gets down eventually.

I usually pick up a new ornament or two each year... one of them I got on our vacation to Michigan...

... and this one I picked up at the Festival of Trees.

We also started a tradition of getting Amaya an ornament every year, but we haven't really found one yet to suit her... there's still some time left though.

Our finished tree - with only 800 lights or so... Only had three strings of lights that were dead, so I was glad we had a little smaller tree this year so I didn't have to go out and buy any more.

Amaya put two of my Christmas bears until the tree - just like Grandma does!


Amaya was a great helper... she liked handing me decorative pinecones and berries to decorate the banister.

The finished result!

Some of our other decorations... Amaya helped with the branches in the basket...

and another...

and another...

Amaya even filled up the vase and arranged the poinsettas... pretty good!

The only thing that would have made the day perfect was a snowstorm...

... and we only had to wait 18 hours or so...

On Saturday, I was reading my Bible by the Christmas tree and when I looked up, it had started to snow!

Bring on the Christmas season!