Christmasy musings, including house decorations.

The line that keeps going through my mind this Christmas season is "O come O come Emanuel." 

Just come be with us, Jesus. You are really all I want. 

There is a teething, feverish little munchkin climbing all over me at the moment. Sweet boy, he is only happy being held. Twasn't a very productive day round here today....

The reason. For the season. I wonder if there were whole days Mary spent just holding Him. Wonder if he was fussy when he was getting molars too? I thought the globe was a relevant addition to the nativity, since He came for the whole world. That tiny, no name little town, changed forever over night. The birthplace of the Savior of the world. 

Daytime, natural light photos are my favorite. But they speak nothing of the coziness of Christmas lights at night. These photos really don't do it justice. But I love the evenings right now. 

Above, our house from the outside looking in and the inside looking out. 

Stockings are hung in the basement family room this year. I'd like to eventually paint these shelves white to match the trim. But my motto at the moment is that anything that can wait til after Christmas, will wait til after Christmas. 

Our tree, with a train around the bottom. Drew thinks any tree without a train around it is missing something. I'd like to also add that I have finally joyfully surrendered the decorating of the tree to the tastes of my family, rather than the tastes of myself. Someday, when my babies are grown and gone, I'll decorate the tree how I like. I'll have white lights and antique ornaments, and a quiet house, and I'm sure I'd gladly trade them for colored lights and little boy laughter in a heartbeat. 

The mantle. I wrote a whole post on it here.

Not sure why this little cup o' candy canes makes me so happy. It just does. 

Pumpkin Snowman sitting on our front porch. Whole post on him here.

My parents have started a tradition of building a gingerbread house with Drew. He is so proud of his little house! He spends a good portion of time each day sitting on a stool at the counter just staring at it. Maybe next year Isaiah will be old enough to help build one too. :) 

Below: The charlie brown tree in Drew's room, left on our porch one day by "Santa" (aka Pop)

The red ball sadly did not make it through even one day before it was accidentally dropped. Drew was pretty devastated, but held it together as best he could. We replaced it with a ball we thought was plastic, only to have it shatter shortly after. There is now a definitely plastic snowman hanging in the red ball's place. 

My Christmas shopping is finally finished. I made my grocery list today, lots of yummy dishes to take to Christmas gatherings this coming weekend. Shaun will be home Friday for what has become our annual gift wrapping whoopla. I'm baking poppyseed bread for our neighbors tomorrow. I was planning on making homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas Eve morning, but am feeling a little overwhelmed trying a new recipe right now, so I'm planning on baked french toast instead. (Maybe the cinnamon rolls will become tradition next year...) And Christmas Eve we're sleeping on the pull out sofa by the Christmas tree. Plus lots and lots of family time and maybe a drive through live nativity. 

So, that's what my plans are for the next few days before Christmas. Trying not to spread myself too thin, enjoy each moment, and look at this season through the eyes of my boys, the beautiful wonder of the whole world lighting up for a bit.