Sharing Christmas 2010

It's here! Sharing Christmas 2010, which is, as Nancy reminded me, the fourth Sharing Christmas!

Please post the specific link to your Sharing Christmas post, that way people can click right to it. Take the time over the next couple of days to check out everyone's post and leave a comment saying hello! That goes for all of you who might not have blogs or aren't to getting a post together - please still come out and enjoy Sharing Christmas!

Welcome to our home! 2010 has been a very busy year so it's important for me to take time and share a little about this most special time of year.

I won't share pictures of every little thing since much of it is the same as years before. This year I actually remembered my antique sled and dug it out of the shed in time to add a little pizazz to our front porch. I know, the bow is pathetic. It was meant to be temporary...you know how that usually ends up!
The tree is in a different place this year. Due to a new addition of an iMac we have a small desk in the corner where we usually put our tree. So now it's just on the other side of our archway in the dining room. The presents under the tree are mystery gifts that the kids wrapped the other night. They grabbed books and who knows what else they found lying around and wrapped them up for us. I'm hoping it's nothing I need before Christmas day!

A few shots of some of my favorite "areas".

I love this old fashioned sign. It reads "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays"

I love my hurricane candle holders. I decorate them different for each season and it's so fun to be able to change things up every year. This year I added the gold ribbon as well as pinecones, cranberries and an old cut up garland. It's so pretty when I light all my Christmas candles at night, and I would have taken a picture like that but my lighter was in the car from Sunday when we had a birthday party for Jesus at church. I was the crazy Sunday school teacher who light a candle on each kid's cupcake for singing Happy Birthday to Jesus! (and the candle is leaning, oh my, driving me nuts, but no time to change it now)

I've been adding more lime green to our colors every year. The Dollar Tree always those colored ornaments so I pick up a pack or two each year. This picture kind of drives me nuts because the berry ring is off centered, but oh well!

Can you tell that I love berries? :)
What does my dining room table look like? Well it's the same as every year except last night it looked like this...
It was a fun night of cookie decorating and Santa Buddy watching. We were so busy we forgot to have Ella study for her big unit spelling test which she has on the 23rd. Can you say Ba-Hum Bug?!

As in years past we do an Advent Calendar all month. We have two so the kids switch back and forth between which one they get to "do". Every day I try and put a piece of paper in our wooden one with various Christmas activites for that day. This year I've struggled to actually do it the night before and having been scrambling to come up with something on the spot. In fact today I told them in the car that today's Advent activity was making a Gingerbread House.

One thing that is different about this year is that the kids no longer believe in Santa Clause. It's kind of weird and a little sad, while that was not a big focus of our Christmas, it was fun to watch their child like belief and excitement. Catherine is actually more adamant about it than Ella (I told them we could play along and still have Santa be a part of our Christmas celebration) and said that it's not as fun knowing that Santa doesn't bring the presents. But we press on knowing that while Santa is a fun magical part of Christmas he in no way even comes close to what this season is all about! (I know, I know, Saint Nicholas and giving and all that - I do tell them about St. Nick and the history behind the legend of Santa)

This year our church had a big Christmas community celebration on December 4th, it was a great great night (although planning it consumed by husband for weeks prior) that had me so in awe of our church community and their willingness to come together to make the night so special and successful. It was a great way to kick off the Christmas season!

Another big event this season was this past Sunday when the girls danced to Bebo Norman's "Come and Worship" during our Christmas service at church. Renee once again did a wonderful job teaching them and getting them ready and watching my girls up on stage is something I truly treasure.

As far as baking, I've scaled back this year. I made sugar cookies (as seen above), soft oatmeal cookies with craisins and white chocolate, Cinnabon caramel corn and a new addition, Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread cookies (sorry no link)

As always our Christmas morning is highlighted by Monkey bread, fresh from the oven - can't wait!!!

The girls are in love with Barbies these days and their big gift is the Barbie Dream House. I got a great deal on it and am soooo excited for them to see it Christmas morning! It got delivered to our house in it's original packaging in the middle of the day and I was so thankful Matt was home to quickly run it upstairs before Catherine could see it. We were so close to having that fun surprise ruined!

Thank you so much for sticking with me while I shared! It's getting late, you better get home ;) Hope you enjoy the view of our front porch...

(that was my not so subtle way of acknowledging that the first picture was taken midday and now it's nighttime)

Wishing all of you a most special Christmas this year. I pray that you have time to enjoy special moments with those close to you.

Merry Christmas, with love,

Ella, Matt, Megan and Catherine