The Martin Family: It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I suppose it's safe to say that the very content of this post - preparing for Christmas - is the reason why I have not put too many posts up recently on the blog. We've had a great month of December, putting up all of our Christmas decorations, baking, preparing for visits with family later this week and seeing many of our closest friends. We've watched some Christmas specials with the kids, done some Christmas crafts and talked to the kids about Jesus' birth many times this month. And finally the BiG DAY is almost here.

Below are some of the highlights of this past month as we prepared for Christmas. I love Christmas and just love going all out to make the holiday extra special. I pray that you and your family have the most blessed and merry Christmas day!

Getting our tree. We always go to Hague's, a local Christian-run nursery that hosts several events for my MOPS group. So, we like to go there and support the owners and we think they have fantastic trees too. This year, we opted for one main tree and a smaller tabletop tree for the kids.

The boys with their Charlie Brown tree. So proud!

Decorating the tree is very serious work. Nate immediately took ownership of the little tree and dictated where all of the ornaments should be hung on this one.

Ben, on the other hand, decided to take control of the big tree and hang some ornaments on this one. This was the first year that both of the boys were really into decorating the trees and looking closely at the ornaments.

'O Christmas Tree...

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Our Snow Village! Andrew's mom started us on this village when we first got married, and before she passed away, so it is very special to us to put it up each year. The boys love looking at it...and turning it off and on!

The centerpiece I made at my MOPS Mom's Night Out. Live evergreen, winterberry and pine cones.

Andrew and I sometimes like to pretend that we are grown-ups :) and have formal parties. This year, we had a dinner party with the eight couples we see most often We had a great time and it was so nice to get dressed up for once. Good times!

I had these little favors to hand out to everyone as they left: hot chocolate bundles. This included packets of hot chocolate, chocolate covered spoons and homemade marshmallows.