Oh Christmas Tree

The Christmas Season is finally here! In our house I make a point to let Thanksgiving have its holiday and not rush into setting up Christmas until the first week of December. So like every year we take in all Thanksgiving has to offer and come that first weekend we gear up and prep to start CHRISTMAS! 

First things first I go through the attic and pull out my what seems to be growing collections of ornaments...we used to have one box now we've grown to two filled with ornaments and one with other holiday decor. As I sit staring at these boxes I can't help but realize the memories that come back with those ornaments, that since we've gotten married we've had 6 Christmas trees together moe & I (there was that one year in the middle of the remodel and living at the apartment that we didnt have a tree at our home but we did have one at moms to enjoy).With each tree came more ornaments, new additions, each showing tidbits of our personalities. Each year our tree tends to become fuller and fuller with these ornaments and I hope to not stop but to keep adding, cause overtime we have added stormtroopers, reading owls, and shotgun shells to our tree, but as well as ornaments collected with the message of what Christmas is really about and what its true meaning is to our family which is the birth of our Savior. These trees are a stories of our families a bit each of our personalities all bunched together in a beautiful collection for the world to see. 

CHRISTMAS 2012

CHRISTMAS 2013

CHRISTAMS 2014 

CHRISTMAS 2015

 I know a lot of people go back and forth on wether to get a real tree or go good quality fake...in this house we only do real trees. Theres just something about the fullness, the smell, the almost but not so perfect shape. Growing up we maybe did a fake tree a few years but the majority of the time mom always had a real tree up for the holidays. I love them and everything about them! Nothing beats the smell of that fresh cut tree when you walk into the house. 

So off to Meinke's garden center (http://www.gardencenterniles.com)  go like every year...and let me tell you they have the best trees in the area! Every year we take home a beautiful tree so of course we go see our friends over there year after year. This year unlike years past we literally walked in saw this big full beautiful tree and all 3 of us said "YUP! Thats the one)...no joke the first tree that we saw we took home! Aside from our big tree in the house we decided to get two smaller ones for the outside, so we're all about our trees this year! 

Logan had a blast helping decorate all 3 trees! Probably what made it feel even more special was that the day we decided to get everything up and decorated was the first time we had legit snow this season! 

CHRISTMAS 2016

Each morning the first thing Logan does is run down the stairs and updates our countdown! I don't know about you but we love countdowns in our house, I guess with an actual physical countdown up we're able to make events more fun, more exciting! So when we were picking up extra lights for our tree (cause theres no such thing as too many lights durning Christmas time) this adorable Martha Stewart countdown (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Martha-Stewart-Living-22-in-L-Metal-Christmas-Countdown-Calendar-2317210HD/206954309) caught my eye and we just had to get it! Love how it fits the bookshelf just perfectly and its a fun way for Logan to countdown to his most favorite holiday.

I love how everything turned out this year, how Logan was so much more excited, and the fact that he was able to have his first snowball fight of the year the day that the house is getting ready for the Christmas! We have our countdown up...our tree set...santa already got his list from Logan for  the year...and Christmas cards have been mailed. Now we wait patiently for December 25th to come. 

-emily-