Deck the Halls

Tuesday, December 2, 2014
I love Christmas. I love everything about it! I love the smell of cinnamon and apple cider candles. I love baking Christmas cookies and decorating gingerbread houses. I love time with family, lots of food, and red, green, and glittery everything! And I love putting up the Christmas tree!
I always look forward to a day or two after Thanksgiving, because that is when my family and I have always put up the tree. This is me and Taylor's first Christmas together, so I was extra excited to do Christmas-y things with him. 

Since Taylor was fine with continuing my family's tradition for the tree, I spent all of November so excited for a few days after Thanksgiving. And for all you people who think people skip over Thanksgiving, don't worry... I was excited for Thanksgiving too. It did not get left out :p

So this past Friday evening, after going to a free steak dinner (I'll be posting about that soon), Taylor and I started on the tree :D
My mom gave me this ornament for my birthday back in October. Its so cute.
All the dogs have tails that stick out on the back of the ornament ;)


One of my favorite things about decorating the tree is seeing all the different ornaments and remembering special memories that go along with them. My parents and Taylor's parents both donated some of their ornaments to our tree, so many of them were familiar and special to us.



This year, something that is very special to me is the wreath my Nana sent me (below). She has recovered a lot from her stroke, but still doesn't have much mobility on the right side of her body. She is and always has been a talented designer, a skilled crafter/sewer, and an extremely smart and hardworking woman. I know it is frustrating for her that she has all of these ideas in her head, but she can't make her body create them.
However, she still finds a way :D
Nana had an idea to make me a wreath out of glittery ornaments, mostly in our wedding colors. Since she couldn't physically make it, she had my mom (who is equally talented and smart) make it. I knew it would be beautiful with the two of them collaborating! And lo and behold, it was!

Beautiful, indoor wreath. 
While we decorated, Taylor and I listened to Christmas music. Taylor had created a playlist with Christmas music we would both like (he gets a little tired of my Nsync and Mariah Carey Christmas  music :p )


In no time at all, we had our tree finished. I think it looks really good, other than a few lights that decided to go rogue.




What are your favorite Christmas/holiday traditions?






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