It's the most wonderful time of the year

The day after Thanksgiving Matt and I don't wake up early and rush out to do shopping. We sleep in, which for me is until about 9:00 and then I can't lay still any more! Then I wake up, turn on Christmas music, start making apple cider and breakfast as I wait for him to get up. Once he's up, we dig out the Christmas decorations and get to work! I love spending that Holiday weekend together and preparing our home for Christmas. That is when we go out and pick out Christmas cards and I spend the next 4-5 days filling them out. 

I love when the house smells like apple cider and pine trees. The next month is filled with Frank Sinatra, Amy Grant, Bing Crosby, Perry Como and Nat King Cole. We go ice skating, where Matt shows off his natural athleticism, and I show off my terrible circulation as my fingers turn blue. We make time for shopping trips, and as soon as we get home with the presents, Matt will go about various tasks at home and I pull out the big box of wrapping supplies and get to work. I love wrapping presents, they become a wonderful decoration all on their own. We don't buy a tree until mid-December (the trees in Texas just don't last as long as they do up in the PNW!), but when we do, we bring it home, and spend a day decorating the tree and I bring out all of the beautifully wrapped gifts to sparkle underneath it. 

When we're able to go visit my parents we get to enjoy driving up into the hills and cutting our own tree! If you haven't done that before, I highly suggest you try it once. Up there we are also able to walk the property and collect pine branches to make our own wreaths and swag. It's definitely something we're missing out on in Texas. 

My favorite part of the season though, is having family and friends over, sitting around the diningroom table and thanking the Lord for all of the many blessings we have. I absolutely love having a full, warm home or being in the PNW or Georgia with family. 

This year I wasn't able to be home to do all of those things, but I do have Christmas music, packets of cider and snowy mountains. 

The mountains out here look exponentially more beautiful with a coating of snow on them. I can almost pretend that they are the Rockies, or Cascades.. If only there were more trees. The handful you see are the only evergreens in the area and I'm fairly certain they're just overgrown bushes.. 

I'm not able to fill out Christmas cards by the fire but Matt, being the amazing man that he is, picked out Christmas cards and filled them out for us! He also put up the lights and decorations (with a little help from my sister) so that our house is still warm and festive. 

And even though I can't be in America with my family, I am still going to be able to watch the kids open their presents and visit with everyone over FaceTime. Maybe I'll get a candle that smells like trees and some cider and feel more like I'm there. 

I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams..