The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This weekend ushered in the beginning of my favorite time of year :)  It starts will the fall and the beautiful leaves and the cooler weather... and then Thanksgiving, and the whole Advent season and my most favorite of all: Christmas!!  I love me my baby Jesus!!  Thanksgiving was a blessing, as always.  We are so blessed to not only have most of our immediate family within driving distance, but we also share the uncommon blessing that all sides get along so well that we can host Thanksgiving for both sides together and everyone can celebrate together. There are jokes as to how we all fit together (out laws, in laws, LOL.... all family really).  It was great to have everyone together.  The kids got to go to the parade with Brian's dad and brothers while we prepared the house and food.  The food was YUM...I will always be thankful to the guy in the grocery store a few years back that yelled at me for looking at buying a Butterball LOL  He was like "A Turkey is a Turkey.... go buy some butter and put it in there yourself and save $30!!" and By gosh he was so right!!!  The butter has got nothing on the arrangement Brian can put together though!!  He's quite the artist when it comes to a turkey!!

As Thanksgiving came to a close, the weekend was just beginning :)  I have (after like 3 years of dragging) seemed to reached the understanding with my sister that she will go shopping with me LOL  I'm not a total loon with this stuff, its more out of logistical necessity at this point.  I have 4 kids and a husband in the seminary... there are not many shopping days that I have that I know there will be sales and I wont have to find sitters for the kids.  So we joined the crazy kooks for a while on Thursday AND Friday... but it really wasn't bad :)  No camping out and all friendly conversations with fellow shoppers.   Amongst my shopping I collected myself 7 Christmas trees to pretty up my outdoor nativity... and prompty began lining my kitchen with them when I returned home (I'm a bit of a Christmas crazy!!)LOL It was quite the scene...and I discovered my lil Dominic is quite the hardworking Christmas Elf as he helped me open all the boxes and set them all up!  

Dominic helping me create Christmas city in our Kitchen!!

What? Doesn't everyone's Kitchen look like this???? :)

Phase one complete!  I plan on figuring something out to make this scene "Hello its Christmas" amazing for Jesus's Birthday!! But still trying to dream up how that will be.... hopefully I'll have some creative partner in crime that is good at this stuff help me.  Note: Baby Jesus isn't lost.. He hasn't been born yet! He'll be there on Christmas Day :)

And then we moved indoors....  The decorating has begun... I still have a number of things to get to their places tomorrow, but a lot of things have reached their destinations... and our tree is up.  I lost count of how many nativities and holy families I have LOL But I love them!!!  The hustle and bustle of four kids decorating the tree and opening all the bins amongst Christmas music was quite the scene.  I can almost picture our fifth lil Christmas crazy there as I step back and watched them.  Next year will be another one of those fun "first Christmas" ... so many firsts as a family together and the craziness of yet another little so excited to put up all the decorations!!   

Melanie trying to reason with Jasmine that SHE should be the one to put the star on the tree.

Verdict: They shall do it together! 

A VERY concentrated section of "Melanie" ornaments reside in one section of the lower branches.

Isabel and Dominic prettying up the tree :)

So pretty!! LOVE Christmas!

And of course, the biggest stocking is set aside for the birthday boy :)  The kids will be filling it with "presents" for Him all the way up to His birthday.  Each time they do something for Jesus, ie help another, show love, prayers etc., they will draw a picture of it or write it on a paper and put it in His stocking.  We hope to have this thing TOTALLY filled by His Birthday :)  

Yes, this blog was long.... I am a Christmas girl :)   Perhaps we need to go visit Baby Jesus together soon..... but we'll save that for next time!! God Bless!  And Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!