Christmas Complete...

I was originally going to do this post last week as a Wordless Wednesday, but I decided I wanted to explain some of the pictures. Since I am not hosting any Christmas parties at the house this year I wanted to share some of the decorations we put up to make this special time of the year complete.

The reason we celebrate.
The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Normally our nativity set sits in the family room on the sofa table, but our little wild monkey wanted to play with it and I knew it wouldn't make it through the holidays. Now it sits in the dining room on the buffet to keep it nice and safe...and pretty.
(Note to self...get the kids their own set. ;)

This little light up tree is very special to me.
It's one of the items on my
"if the house is on fire, grab it" list.
(Does anyone else have one of those or am I just weird?)
This tree belonged to my paternal grandmother and my dad gave it to me after she passed away.
I have loved this tree since I can remember.
Last year the tree had an unfortunate accident while making it's way out of the attic. The tip of the tree was broken off, but a little Gorilla Glue later it was fixed as best it could be.
We had to move this to the dining room buffet also because Bryce couldn't resist touching it.
Any really,
I can't blame him because it's so pretty all lit up!

The stocking were hung on the chimney with care...

And this year I finally got around to having our names embroidered them. It only took me 6 years to get around to it. I love the way the stockings look now with the embroidery...they are finally complete. My mom made these stockings for me when we were just a family of 3. I had her make 4 because I knew we would eventually be a family of 4. I never expected to have a 5th made, but my mom managed to make it almost identical to the others shortly after Bryce was born.
These stocking are big so they hold lots of fun goodies. One of my favorite parts of Christmas as a child was going through my stocking. I tend to put a lot of thought and effort as to what goes into each stocking. I'm sure I go a little over-board, but you only get ONE stocking a year so do it up right!

Ta-daaa!
Our tree for the year.
Growing up my family always had a live tree so when Bryan and I got married I wouldn't have it any other way. We typically put our tree up the day before or after Thanksgiving and we usually take it down the day after Christmas.

I'm kind-of a gift wrapping nerd and always have the presents color coordinate with the room. I find wrapping presents to be very relaxing. I tend to get lost in my own little world and I go. It's great "me time".
I love wrapping up gifts because
I think it's so much more fun to tear into a present than pull it out of a bag.

As for our ornaments - there is no rhyme or reason on our tree. It's a hodge-podge of colors and themes and I love it that way. Anytime we receive an ornament as a gift I write the date and who gave it to us somewhere on the ornament. At one of my bridal showers everyone brought me a Christmas ornament, which I thought was a fabulous idea. To this day I remember who gave me each ornament. My mom ended up giving me an entire box full of ornaments that were mine as a little girl. I loved that she did that for me and decided I would do that for my kids too. Each year I take the kids to the store and let them pick out ANY ornament they want. Once we get the ornament home I write their name/initials and the year on it. One day when they have their own tree they can have all of their childhood ornaments to get them started!

Christmas tends to make me very sentimental. ;)

Do you have any decorations that make your holiday celebration complete??