Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got a few surprises!

1st day of Christmas

On the 1st day of Christmas, our paper chain told us to read Luke 1:5-80. Nice reminder of what Christmas is really about rather than worrying about all the shopping and wrapping I still need to do.

Christmas decor

Without pinterest, my apartment would be much less crafty. But because pinterest now exists, I like to get my pretend craft on. Pretend crafts because amazing people design things, I print them stick them in frames and wa-la! cuteness abounds in my apartment.

First off there are the trees. I know they're everywhere now, but I first saw the idea here at the fantabulous Abbie's blog. So I got my some sparkly red yarn, plain gray (cause who doesn't love gray!) and a wonderfully shaggy, sparkly Martha Stewart special yarn. Super easy and easy to do while chatting or watching TV.

I got this cake stand at Marshalls I think. They almost always have them. I like it because I can change out the ribbon to match whatever I want (not that I change it out for anything other than Christmas). Plop some green Christmas balls and you're good to go!

I personally am quite in love with this. You can find the printable here (along with a printable for every other holiday and season! love!). Went to Michaels, got the cheapest white frame, sparkly white card stock, printed it, popped it in and perfection!

Then, since I still haven't made or purchased a lasting advent calendar, I found a printable one with scripture verses on it for each day. Again super easy and now we have a set of scripture to read each day to keep us focused on the real meaning of Christmas. I might try and do my own set of scriptures for next year so I can add some Book of Mormon verses as well.

Stockings are hung by our "fire place."

The bookcase in all its Christmas glory.

Love!

Christmas Tree!

You know I made Dan bust out our Christmas box (Thanks Aunt Carey!) the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Why? Because I LOVE Christmas! I tried to make these pics more condensed but it just made things look a little funky. Maybe one of my amigas can show me how to do side by side pictures on here so you're not scrolling through for forever...

But anyways. 1st up in Christmas decor, the Tree with a capital T!

I found a tutorial online for taking Christmas tree pictures. I'm even more in love with my tree! I just need to figure out how to do a bokeh one. I was struggling... but I love these!

Who else is oh so happy for Christmas?!

The end

 Then it was 5:30pm and the dishes were cleaned and everything was put away. The dog was walked, the trash taken out, we were tired.

 And I finally got a picture with the person I'm most thankful for.

I love you Dan. I am grateful for you, and how much you love me and take care of me. What would I do without you?

The dessert

 We kind of had a lot of dessert.

 pumpkin pie, german chocolate pie, apple crisp pie, pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and fruit salad

It was good.

The characters

We had the Stevenson's, the Staples and Robert's brother, and Dan's mom Jan. 

We took one nice picture and then...

 chowed down

I really like these people