Christmas and All the Trimings

I've been dreaming about our first Christmas together since we first got engaged. And especially after having him gone last year, this Christmas was really special, and I couldn't wait to do all the fun Christmas time things together. The first thing we did together was cut down this beautiful Christmas tree, which you can read about in one our previous posts. We couldn't wait to decorate the tree. Luckily we had a lot of hand me down ornaments from my parents to keep the tree from looking too much like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Besides the lights and balls, almost all the ornaments were homemade, I loved the feel/theme it gave it.

One of Eric's favorite things to do growing up is lie on a blanket under the tree and gaze at the tree in all its splendor. Definitely a new favorite thing to do, it was so peaceful and gave us a moment to just lie their and think about all of our blessings. We looked at several stores and could never find a star that we liked well enough, and decided to just wait until next year to find one.

I made a beautiful red and beige stripped ruffle tree skirt, but somehow we never got a picture of the tree and skirt combined :(

It wouldn't be the holidays without crafts. I saw this idea on Pinterest, and just had to do it. We went to Porter's one night to find supplies and low and behold they had the whole idea in a neat little kit, blocks of wood and all. So we caved because it was so convenient. It was really quick and easy to put together, however the little kits kind of take away the creative aspect, but it was still fun.

My little French nativity is my favorite souvenir that I brought home from my mission. The French believe that everyone would come to see and worship the baby Jesus, so their nativity depicts just that, everyone coming to worship, not just the kings and shepherds, but the baker, the farmer, the maid, everyone. So real French nativities have 40, 60, sometimes hundreds of characters! I could only purchase the essential characters, but want to keep adding to my nativity throughout the years.

Eric bought this Poinsettia for me after a hard day, he's so thoughtful, and it really added  a nice pop of color to the apartment.

My mom made this nativity years ago, and she graciously passed it on to me. It was nice to have plenty of decorations even though we are newlyweds, especially because I LOVE decorating!

When I worked at Bath & Body Works last winter, I snagged this cute candle Christmas house when it was on clearance.

So even though we are newlyweds and didn't have much space to decorate, I loved how our little house looked during Christmas it was so much fun! Now I have to make more decorations for other holidays, so our apartment doesn't feel so bare.