Merry After Christmas!!

Another Christmas has come and gone and usually I am a little sad to see it end, but not this year.  Even though I LOVE Christmas time, I am also looking forward to 2014.  I remember this time last year and I was in the midst of wedding planning and was SO excited for 2013.  Now, I am SO ready for what 2014 will bring.  I think I had more Christmas celebrations than ever this year!  It started on Saturday, the 21st at my Grandparents Christmas which is always interested because that Family has SO many CRA CRA people in it!!  It is always good people watching for sure.  I had my Mother and her Husband and My Sister and Brother in Law over on the Sunday before Christmas, then a full day of Christmas activities on Christmas Eve followed by a dinner on Christmas Day.  Needless to say, I am really ready for normalcy!  Next on the agenda, to take all the decorations down.  That is NOT something I am looking forward to!!! 

My Christmas Table

                                                     The tree with all the presents!  Love it!!

Our First Christmas as Mr. and Mrs.

Outdoor fireplaces are the best!!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

I love everything about Christmas.  I love to decorate my Christmas Tree and fireplace mantel and go look at Christmas lights.  It is such a pretty time of year.  I wish that life wasn't so busy because I would love to have a tradition of a Christmas Party with our friends.  Maybe when we move into the new house I will be able to do that since we will have more room for entertaining and can hire a babysitter for all of our friend's that have kids.  I love to entertain so this would be right up my alley!  I can't wait until the day I have a child so that I can do all kinds of fun stuff with him or her.  There are SO many things you can do for the kids and I want to have Christmas Traditions for my little family every year.  One of the things I remember the most from my childhood is the things I did with my Grandparents every year at Christmas time.  My Grandma always made Christmas so special and actually it is also this time of the year that I miss my Grandparents the most.  I sure hope my Christmas wish comes true!! 

I just love the burlap animal print ribbon I found at First Monday. 

The top of the tree is one of my favorite things about my tree.  I have done this tree topper for a few years now before it was "the cool thing" to do.  Every year I get compliments from the same people on it like they have never seen it on the tree before. 

The whole view of the tree.  It is 9 feet tall and it takes what seems like forever to decorate and get the branches just the way I like them.  I am having a closet built in the new house just to store the tree, so I can just wheel it into the closet like this every year!  Then I can get a real tree too.  I love real Christmas Trees and will have one next year to go along with this one!  So, I guess I am not really saving myself much time if I am just going to decorate the real one.  Oh well, at least it will only be one and not two to decorate!

I love this ornament.  One of my sweet friends got this for us as a wedding gift and I waited all year to put it on the tree.  It has the our wedding date on the other side.  It is SO CUTE!!!

My mantel is a little boring right now, but it works for this year.  I am going to go to the sales after Christmas and find a wreath to add to it next year and some new garland.  I don't like this stuff at all.  It has little plastic ice crystals all over it and gets EVERYWHERE!!  I am going to retire it after this season.  I think I am just going to find some plain garland and then add my own touches to it with the help of my hot glue gun and some fun stuff!!  I looked everywhere for stockings with an animal print design and these are what I found at First Monday.  I like them because they are a little different than the tree and complement the colors in the living room.  Jason doesn't like them though.  Oh well, I do so they are staying!  :-) 

 

I am keeping things a little quiet right now on the Baby front until we know for sure what is going to happen as to not let ourselves down.  I don't want the most wonderful time of the year to be ruined by the ordeal we have faced with the Baby stuff.  I know it is a little wrong to not let our own Family in on all the Baby stuff, but I kind of describe it to others as the ones that had a Baby the "old fashion way" not telling us every time they see us if they had sex.  I know that is kind of to the point, but it is truly the same thing, just in a different way.  I also just don't feel like we have to share every detail of this with our Family members.  Jason and I just try to be as normal as can be when we are around our Family and not let them in on our life of getting Baby.  It just makes any kind of let downs even worse when you have to tell others bad things.  So, pretty much VERY few people will even know anything until there IS a Baby and we are telling the sex of the little miracle.  That is the plan for now.  Some many things have gone wrong, so I am truly hopeful for my wish to come true! 

About a house.......

Well, the time FINALLY came that we closed on the house/lot.  It felt like forever since we started this process, but we closed on Tuesday.  It was such a relief to know that we can now start the craziness of house building.  First, we had to take care of some much needed cleaning out of the lot to make way for our new house. 

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, the tree removal began.  I really did not want the tree guys to work on Thanksgiving, but they insisted it was fine with them.  We went over there to see the progress before heading onto the Families for the lunch.  I was amazed at the amount of work they had done by 10am!  The trees were not small either!!  I know some of the tree huggers out there will be mad that we didn't save the trees, but we have no choice to get the house to fit.  Besides, people need firewood, lumber and paper still!!!  So, in my mind, the trees are being recycled!  I was really worried, I would see a sign saying, SAVE THE TREES! 

This is what I saw when we pulled up to the house on Thanksgiving Day. 

This is the stump from the tree in the front yard.  The bulldozer that demos the house, will pull the tree trunk out of the ground.  The guy in the tree is on the last branch of the biggest tree that you can see in the picture of above in the left corner.