Daily December 3--Week 48

I am doing Daily December blogging posts this month.  Some are Christmas related, some not, some recipes, some ideas, some thoughts, some random things.  Please stop by each day to take a look.  Today I am posting my daily pictures from last week.  I try to take a picture a day to document our lives, and I love and use Becky Higgins' Project Life products for this.  It is crazy to think December is already here.  Several years ago after Christmas I commented to my neighbor how sad I was to put the Christmas tree away.  She said, "Oh, don't be sad, you will just blink and Christmas will be here again and you will be putting it back up."  Every year I think about her comment and agree to myself, yes, it felt like just yesterday we were putting all this stuff away, and then 'blink' and here we are again putting up the tree.  My goal this month it to keep things as calm and relaxed as possible, which everyone knows is not easy, but we are sure going to try.  Our goal is lots of evenings spent around the Christmas tree reading stories.  We will see how it goes :)  So here is what we have been up to all week. . .

Normally we always decorate the house and put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving, but since we were out of town, we are a little late this year, but were able to get it done today.  So many memories when we decorate the tree because we get each kid a new ornament each year, and it is fun for them to remember and see again their special ornaments.

Decorating is no small task.  These are all the Christmas boxes now empty and ready to be put away.  Ugh.  lots of work.

Ben and the kids got the outside lights up this week.  Lots of helpers up there, even one with a Santa hat :)

So grateful for wonderful friends that keep me sane!  I try to get together for lunch with some of them whenever I can.  Love my girlfriends!

Every November we make a Tree of Thanks to remember our many blessings.  Our extended family helped us with that this year by creating and sending us a November thankful countdown which we loved.  There was an envelope for each day with a little piece of paper that each family member wrote down what they were thankful for.  We put them on our kitchen wall next to our tree to remind us all we have been so blessed and have so much to be thankful for.

Went up to the city this evening to an amazing nativity display.  It was a perfect way to start the month and remember the reason for the season.  I talked about it more in my Daily December post from yesterday. (Mr J looks like he is having so much fun, huh?)

Today we went to hear Miss A perform in the state district choir that she qualified for.  They were there all day, and performed in the evening.  They were very good.

Thanks for visiting, and come back daily this month!  Have a great day!