The beginning of Christmastime

The house is a mess and I have paperwork to do; however, I would rather blog right now.  It's been a while and I'd rather not be one of those people who creates the blog, publishes a few eager, initial posts and never shows up again.  Therefore, rather than doing the dishes, vacuuming the floors, sweeping, or filling out paperwork, I'm typing away at this computer.  (Granted - I do currently have a few sweaters in the dryer that are hopefully finishing up the felting process.)

I LOVE Christmastime and this is mine and Michael's first Christmas being married.  We got our Christmas tree last night and now the living room smells wonderful.  I love the smell of real Christmas trees.  Growing up, my siblings and I could hardly wait to decorate the tree once it came into our house.  My parents would usually try to talk us into waiting a day in order to let the limbs fall down a bit and open up.  The kids often won, however, because once the ornaments were out, how were we supposed to stand the excitement and temptation of decking out the tree?? 
Well - Michael and I must be growing up.  The tree is not yet decorated.  It's simply sitting bare in the living room as the limbs fall open.

Here it is!  (please excuse the printer, bag, box and other miscellaneous items in the photo...)

A couple nights ago, we won a Christmas tree topper off of ebay.  It's a 1979 angel that has a stained glass look about it.  Can't wait for it to arrive in the mail!  I'll post a photo once the tree is all made up.

A week or two ago when Michael and I went grocery shopping at WalMart we saw the mixed nuts (with shell on) for sale in the produce section.  Though we did not own a nutcracker, we bought some.  It seemed like a nice holiday thing to have a bowl of nuts sitting on the coffee table; however, we got home and didn't even have a good bowl to put them in.  Thankfully, yesterday at the pottery, I was able to land not only a bowl for the nuts, but also a nutcracker.

Not only that, but before going to the pottery yesterday, I found some great Pyrex mugs (I bought 4 but I think there were 8 for sale) and a mustard colored sweater at Goodwill.  So last night, after we got the Christmas tree situated we drank Silk Nog out of our new mugs.

Also, last night before going to get our Christmas tree, Michael and I went to Target to get a Christmas tree stand (we figured that was a fairly vital item to have before purchasing a tree); however, we also ended up with Christmas tree lights, a menorah and candles (for the menorah).  We are going to celebrate Hanukkah this year.  Even though we are not Jewish, it is a great reminder of God's faithfulness and I'm excited to partake in this special holiday.



Well, since beginning this post, I've gotten the sweaters out of the dryer.  I'm afraid the water that I washed them in wasn't hot enough...  might have to try to felt at least one of them again.

Okay, to the cleaning now - perhaps!