Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

I am taking the next few days off to spend time with my people and indulge in the magic of Christmas. As amazing as all of the Christmas lights, food, traditions, etc. are, the truly amazing thing is the gift of Jesus. If you have never read the story of Christ's birth, I have included it below. 

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I will see you in 2018!

Luke 2: The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Around The House At Christmas Time

Christmas is my favorite time of year (besides summer when I don't have to be cold all the time ;)). I love decorating, I love wrapping presents, and I love blasting Christmas music all through the house for a month straight. 

I am typically one of those people we all silently judge for decorating their house before Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving too, but I am ready by mid-November to start enjoying my Christmas decorations. With this being Preston's first Christmas, I was way excited to jump the gun and get my Christmas on! I thought I would take today to share a few little decorations that make me happy. :)

My mom always had nutcrackers in her house, so I always get excited to display these guys. Nutcrackers just scream Christmas to me!

I love this little nativity set we got from Parker's grandmother a few years back. It's simple and sweet, and those little sheep are adorable!

I bought our stockings when we got married from Lands End. I love the needlepoint look!

I ordered Preston's stocking last year when I was still pregnant, and I am not exaggerating at all when I say hanging it this year was a dream come true. I love seeing his stocking hung next to his sister pup's stocking.

A few gifts waiting to be opened! I love making bows and purposely do not save the bows each year so that I get to make them again. The joy I get wrapping presents and making bows is greater than the $7 I would save by saving the bows each year. ;)

Here is a little snippit of our Christmas tree! We bought a pre-lit tree back in 2011, and this was the year the lights decided to stop working. We had a good run, but instead of getting my rear in gear and trying to fix it, I've resorted to just not having lights this year. I'm a mom... we don't have time to go through every bulb to find the faulty one. Or at least that's the excuse I am using here. ;)

I think I blogged about this last year, but I love this Christmas memories book! Each year, I adhere our Christmas card and write about gifts, special memories, etc. It will be so nice to have to look back on!

A look inside this sweet little book. You can order one here if you are interested!

And lastly, Christmas cards. I blogged last week about my love for sending out Christmas cards. I love receiving cards and displaying them in our home. It makes my heart happy!

7 Years of Christmas Cards

Christmas cards were a big deal in my family when I was growing up. My sisters and I coordinated in our best, cheesiest outfits, Mom printed the picture onto a card, and we sent it out to our closest friends and family. I loved sending it and I loved checking the mail each day to see if we received any new cards. 

When Parker and I got married, I started sending our own Christmas card. I have sent one for every year we have been married! I joke that I can't remember the last time I mopped my floors, but I always have our Christmas card in the mail the week of Thanksgiving so it will arrive before December 1st. Priorities. 

We always try to take our Christmas picture in a place that is special to us and represents the past year. I thought I would take today to share our cards through the years!

2011 was the year we got married and our first Christmas together! We took this picture in my Nana's front yard in Midlothian, TX. This was just a few weeks before we started our new lives in Florida, so I love that we were home and in Texas for this card. Jenny was just a year old!

2012 was the year we moved to Pensacola, FL for Parker to begin flight school! We moved that January and absolutely fell in love with the place. We had so many great friends and spent most weekends on the beautiful beach. It was only fitting that we take our picture on the beach!

2013 was the year we moved to Kingsville, TX and were finally back in the motherland! We took this picture on the naval base since that year was spent with Parker logging more study/flight/Navy time than I knew was possible. 

2014 was spent in Norfolk, VA. We took this picture in the middle of such a big, trying time in our lives. I was pregnant with Taylor Grace in this picture. By the time this card arrived in mailboxes, I was no longer pregnant with her. We also had Darla that year, the dog we took in for a year while her owner was on deployment. We took our picture in front of our house with a tripod. That house holds so many memories that I never want to forget, so I love that we chose to take it there. 

2015 was spent in Virginia Beach, VA, and we took this picture on the nature trail behind our house. This was our first house to buy, so that makes this picture extra special to us! Bonus: this is the first picture Jenny decided to crack a smile for! ;)

2016 was the year of the deployment and the year of the pregnancy! Go big or go home, right? Since Parker was deployed from June-December, we had a little fun with this card and made sure it was an adequate representation of 2016. I mailed Parker the sign he is holding. I am in Texas with my family, and Parker is in Bahrain!

2017 was our first Christmas card with baby Preston! It was so surreal for me to get to include our son in this card. It sounds silly, but it was a dream come true! We took this one again in the nature trail behind our house, knowing this is the last year we will get to do so before we move. We also learned this year that getting both a dog and a baby to look at the camera is impossible. (Oopsies- i just realized I cut off the "P" in Parker's name. It was included in the actual card. ;))

All cards are really special to me, and of course I love our card this year because it has sweet baby Preston in it, but if I had to pick a favorite card, it would be our card from 2014. That card was taken on a tripod in our front yard, so it's not winning any photography awards, but it is so special to me. It is the only card that has Taylor Grace and Darla in it. We will Godwilling have so many cards in the future, but that is the only card that will ever say Taylor's name, so it will always be really special to me. 

Special Christmas Ornaments On Our Tree

I thought it would be fun today to share some of my favorite Christmas ornaments on our tree! I like a fairly uniform tree, so most of our ornaments are various gold and red patterns from Hobby Lobby or Costco, but we also have several keepsake ornaments sprinkled in.

When Parker and I take a trip, we usually grab an ornament as a souvenir. We also have a few ornaments that are special because they represent a member of our family. Those are my favorite on our tree and the ones I get most excited to hang!

This first one was actually a gift from my mother-in-law this year. It was the perfect size for a sonogram picture, so I slipped in my favorite image of our sweet baby boy. Love him so much!

This is an ornament I made with our wedding invitation. I cut each line into a strip, curled it with a pencil, and put them all in a clear ornament with our initial.

I made this one with Jenny's paw print when we lived in Florida. It was our second Christmas with her. You know you are an obsessed dog mom when you have your pup's paw print on the tree!

This was a Christmas gift from one of my sweet friends this year. Her husband was also on deployment most of the year, so she made us these matching ornaments to commemorate this chapter. So thoughtful!

These next two are my Taylor Grace ornaments. I always hang them at the top of the tree right under the angel. This first one is a crystal cross and was a gift from a family friend shortly after Taylor went to Heaven. There is a little charm at the top that has the year 2014 written on it. I love it.

This last ornament is my favorite on the tree. It was a gift from my friend's mother in law in 2014, and I cry every time I put it on the tree. It's just so beautiful and special to me in so many ways.

I love little ornaments that make a tree more personal, and the ones above are what help make our tree ours! :)

Christmas Cards Through The Years

It may be a Southern thing, but I just love sending Christmas cards each year! My mom always color-coordinated our outfits growing up for our annual Christmas card picture that would go to family and friends. When Parker and I got married, I knew I wanted to keep the tradition alive with our little family. They are fun to send, fun to receive, and it gives me an excuse to take a nice picture at least once a year. ;)

I ordered this book two years ago as a way to store our cards and write down fun Christmas memories from each year to look back on. I love it! I have ordered Christmas cards from several sites and honestly, they all do a good job. My only advice is to check Groupon before purchasing Christmas cards. The past 2 years, I have used Photo Affections because they have a Groupon for 78% off. This year I ordered 100 cards for $37.99... not too shabby for this little cheapo!

 We try to make the annual Christmas card somewhat representative of what our life looked like that year. Apologies for the poor quality... I didn't have a digital copy of each card so I went old school and took a picture of a picture!

Our first Christmas (2011), we were living in College Station, TX about to make our first big move to Pensacola. We had been married 6 months, and those first 6 months were spent doing all things family and Aggieland. We took our picture in my grandparents' front yard in Midlothian, TX. 

Our second Christmas (2012), we went to the beach with our good friends Ryan and Emily and each took pictures for the others. We spent so much time at Pensacola beach in 2012, so taking our picture there was a no-brainer. We all had so much fun taking pictures for each other and trying to wrangle two crazy pups in the process! Fun fact: Blogging that experience was one of my first ever posts! You can read more here. 

Our third Christmas (2013), we took our picture on base in Kingsville, TX. The intent was to have the big "Fly Navy" water tower in the background, and you can read all about that little debacle here. 

Our fourth Christmas (2014), we took the picture in front of our rental house in Norfolk, VA. We just loved that little house, and this card is probably my favorite of the bunch. I love all of them, but the 2014 card is special to me because it is one that we will never be able to recreate again. I was still pregnant with Taylor Grace in this picture, and we had sweet Darla who we kept for a year while her mom was on deployment. 

Our fifth Christmas (2015), we took the picture in the woods behind the home we had just purchased. This was the year we became homeowners, so this location was a given for the Christmas card! This was also the first card that Jenny smiled for. Only took 4 years! You can see more pictures from 2015's photoshoot here. 

And here we are approaching our sixth Christmas (2016). I thought a lot about what I wanted to do with our card this year. I knew I still wanted to send one, but deployment represented over half of 2016 for us, so I wanted to somehow incorporate that. In the end, I decided Parker and I would both hold signs that pointed to each other and read "All I Want For Christmas Is" and "All We Want For Christmas Is". I created them on picmonkey.com and printed them off for $2 at The UPS Store. I mailed Parker his sign, had him hold it next to the plane, and Jenny and I took a separate picture with our sign. I put the two next to each other and am quite pleased with the result!

I blurred out the bottom of this year's card because it has our son's name on it. We just aren't quite ready to share that on the blog just yet. :)