Christmas is here!

Hi Friends!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is over?
Where in the world did this year go?

We have been busy at our house.  T has been sitting in a deer stand every morning and night, while I've been playing with my new child, Birdie.  I walked to the garage the other day and almost broke my neck on T's hunting boots which he left at the door.  I took a picture because it sort of sums up his life right now...eat, sleep, work, hunt...

He shot a "big" one Saturday morning, so he has the fever even worse now.  I guess Birdie and I will spend many more mornings cuddling by ourselves. 

As you can see, she has a really tough life

And I don't know how this position is comfortable, but she likes to wedge herself beside me in the chair

It's so cute - I just eat it up

I've also been busy decorating - well rather, deciding on things to decorate with

Its a work in process - T's uncle walked in this weekend and said, "man, I love yalls furniture!"

Ha.  I hope to have an after picture very soon!

Who knew a sofa was so hard to pick out!

In other news, we are gearing up for Christmas.  The weather has been pretty cold lately, so its been great have a fire every night or so.  

Our christmas tree purchase was once again an adventure.  We headed to Lowes to pick our tree (bc T had a coupon - Dad are you proud?!?).  Our ceilings are 10 ft high in the living room, so I suggested we go with about a 7 ft. tree...Clark Griswald aka T was having none of that!  We ended up with a very humble 9 ft tree that would have made ole Clark proud.

Too bad it was a tad big...

Oh well.  After cutting about 2 ft off the top, we were good to go

Birdie wasn't even phased...

And this is T's new obsession

a dust buster

Ugh.  I know I should appreciate that my husband is a neat freak, but if I hear this thing turn on one more time, I may freak out.  He decided after hauling in the tree, he should suck up all the pine needles...

After what felt like an hour of him dust busting, we were finally ready to put on some ornaments...

Men...

It turned out great, I think

I'm so glad to have a real tree this year - our fake one from last year just wasn't cutting it

It was pretty cozy once we got everything set up

Had to break out the flash on this one

Love the smell of fresh garland

I've been looking for a manger scene for 2 years now

My mom has a beautiful one from Sam's, but I can't find anything like it

I found this little one at Belk's and thought it was pretty

We haven't done much in the kitchen or the dining room because our house is truly a work in process at the moment, but I did throw a few things together.

See what I mean about bare?!

Oh well, decorating is my favorite part, so I'm taking my time

The mantle in the formal living room, and you can see a small part of our new rug from Pottery Barn!

I love it!

And nothing is better than Micheal Buble on the Bose

Ahh...swoon...he is amazing!

We haven't sent out Christmas cards yet, but I've got my cards ordered, my stamps bought and addresses organized, so I'm ready to go when they arrive!

One of my sweet, sweet high school friends came out to my parent's farm over Thanksgiving to take our Christmas card picture.  I thought they turned out great.  The day was really overcast, but she did a wonderful job making them feel warm and sunny.

This is one of the whole family

This is the one that will be on T and I's Christmas card

Hope everyone is having fun gearing up for Christmas

It is such a fun time of year and we have so much to be thankful for.

Much Love!