Christmas!!!

It's almost here! We are very excited for Christmas around here. I didn't go overboard with decorations this year as I did not want to spend most of my time trying to keep Jack from tearing things apart. He surprised me though and hasn't really paid much attention to the extra decorations...except to point to the lights on the tree and ask "hot? hot?" Funny guy! Here is what Christmas looks like around our house this year...

We put our Christmas tree in our upstairs family/play room last year and loved it. From the street we look like scrooges because there are no glowing lights in the front window...but we get to enjoy it all day everyday because it is in the room we spend the most time in...and I love it!

A new addition this year is Jack's Little People Nativity Scene. My parents sent it to him as an early Christmas gift and he LOVES it! It does not usually look this neat and orderly...Jack likes to put all the people in the manger...shepards...wise men and all. The baby Jesus plays music and he likes to press it over and over again. This has brought hours of fun over the past few weeks and has given Brad and I the opportunity to teach him the names of the figures at the Nativity. He can easily identify Baby Jesus (Baby), Mary (Momma...I told him she was Jesus' momma), Joseph and Wise Man (singular).

A few other touches throughout the house are my "Coffee Tree" in the kitchen. My friend April gave me this idea, as she has one in her house. This holds all my Starbucks and coffee themed ornaments.

Our Christmas Card tree. I love keeping the cards year to year and seeing how our friends families have grown and changed. Lots of new babies on that tree this year!

And one of my most favorite decorations this year...

The cheesy smile is new...and unfortunately is the only one we can seem to capture on camera right now. And no...I don't force him to clean...he loves to "sweep" with my broom and pitches a fit when I take it away from him. I need to get him a smaller one that he can play with so I am not always chasing behind him trying to keep him from knocking things over with the handle.

I took this picture this morning because it was too cute. Jack pulling Daisy around in one of his toy baskets. This actually entertained him for about 30 minutes this morning and Daisy was a good sport until he tried to crawl in with her.

More pictures of our Christmas celebrations to come...hope you and your have a very Merry Christmas!