I'll Be Home for Christmas

I am so thrilled that we are moved back near family, in our own home, for Christmas this year. Last year brought forth much stress traveling with a then 5 month old. We got such little sleep and spent much of our time lugging things around from one family member's house to another. Packing the car, unpacking the car. Not being able to spend a little time together on Christmas morning with just our little family. I look forward to that this year.

I have also enjoyed getting to decorate a home that is ours this year. Every year it's a treat to unload all of the Christmas decor. I forget things I have to decorate with and am pleasantly surprised what all of the boxes hold each year as I unpack them. I also love finding new things to add. Two weeks ago I found this nativity scene in a little antique shop:

It was super cheap, and I just love all of the beautiful colors in it. I need to find a manger for it, and hopefully one day it will have a home under the tree, just as my grandmother use to place hers, but for now, its home is high on the bookshelf, away from chubby little fingers!

Here are a few more decorations that have gone up in the house:

Notice how sparse the ornaments are at the bottom of the tree. There were plenty thoughtfully placed on the tree to create balance, but the balance that I achieved lasted the duration of the naptime that I was using to hang them. Now many are scattered under the tree and around the house. Luckily I had the foresight to put all of the non-breakable ones at the bottom; however, I lacked the foresight to take a picture of the tree before naptime ended. Oh well, its a little touch of Hattie's decorating to our home.

I took Hattie to see Santa earlier this week. I thought for sure she would SCREAM her head off. She didn't scream to my surprise, but she didn't smile either. She was unphased completely:

Santa doesn't look too jolly either. I wanted to reason with Santa, Look, I'm trying to capture a moment, a memory here, can you just give me a little bit of cheer?!?! Instead, I got the most unevenful event of the year. I think crying from Hattie and an annoying look on Santa's face would have been better than blank stares. It would have atleast been funny for years to come.