Living the Life and Loving It!: 15 Days 'Til Christmas!!!

Thanks to a friend of mine who wanted to know if we had our Christmas decorations up yet, I went home last night and snapped some pictures! Micah thought it was pretty funny that I was snapping pictures of all of these different decorations, but I told him they are almost all my favorites so I have to get them all!

I love this time of year! There is always a special spirit that blankets the world at Christmas time and I love to be able to feel it! We are looking forward to spending our 4th Christmas together this year! We have talked a little bit about traditions and what our traditions are. And since we are still relatively new at spending our Christmases together, we only have a few at this point (although I am sure we will have a few more next year when Emily will be here for her 1st Christmas!!).

So far our traditions include:

1) Making Cookies together a few Saturdays before Christmas to give to different friends and family - this is a really fun one! We both LOVE cookies and have come to use some family favorites each year (Christmas Ball Cookies, Chocolate Roly Polys, Peanut Butter cookies with Hershey Kisses are a few of our favorites!

2) Sending out Christmas Cards (We just started sending out cards last year that included a Christmas Picture and a letter ~ which is something I have always wanted to do! And we are FINALLY DOING IT!)

3) On Christmas Eve we put our Santa Hats on and wrap stocking stuffers for eachothers stockings and then we stuff the stockings and sit on the couch to enjoy our milk and cookies!

4) One of the last things we do on Christmas Eve before bed is read the Christmas story together in Luke! One of our best traditions, it really invites the Spirit into our home, which I love!

And of course we get to enjoy time with our friends and family each Christmas! We are so blessed. And this year we get to meet a new member of our family just a few days after Christmas, and we cannot adequately express our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for that great blessing! We have been waiting and praying for her to come for many Christmases past and now it is finally her turn!!!

Here are some pictures of our decorations, we are not much of interior decorators but we definitely have fun!!

I LOVE Snowmen, so you will see A LOT of snowman decorations!!!

Here is our Snow Man Countdown to Christmas! (He is a little bigger than we thought he would be, but that makes him more fun!)

Another fun Snowman on our Piano!

This little guy sits on the other end of our piano and he sings "Let it Snow."

Our Beautiful Christmas Tree ~ I really enjoy White Pines so Micah is content to help me pick one out for us each year!

We Hung our stockings this year....usually they sit on the couch!!

You have to dress up your speakers, you know:)

Our Newest Addition.....Our Nativity! It took us a few years to find one, but we finally found this one to start with from Precious Moments!

Another One of my Favorite Decorations! I made this a few years ago at a Relief Society Activity and it is been on our Tv ever since! Plus another fun snowman!! Seriously I think we have about 25 snowmen throughout our house!