My Very Favorite

Christmas is my very favorite time of year.  I start looking forward to it in August!  Once my birthday hits I feel like Christmas is right around the corner because you can usually find Halloween decor in the stores beginning in August and right after that is done the Christmas stuff starts to take over.  I love all the holidays of fall, but I think once Halloween is over the Christmas spirit is the best kind of spirit to have thru the rest of the year.  It just enriches Thanksgiving and is the very best way to get people thinking of others.  I really really love it. 

As I decorated the tree this year I got to thinking about some of my favorite little things of Christmas.  Like the fudge my family only makes this time of year and finding the silliest most pointless gift that the kids will get a giant kick out of.  I love the garlands I put up in the kitchen and the excuse to outlaw any and all other types of music.  If its not Christmas music it has no purpose being played during the holidays.  I also really love a few different ornaments on our tree.  I noticed as I decorated this year I was plotting which ornaments are going to go first as I replace them with ones that really mean a lot to me.  Here's a few of my favorites:

I made this ornament our first Christmas.  It's always front and center- where no one can miss it.

This was given to us by some great old friends and I love the message it bears.  Perfect for the season.

This was one of the first vintage ornaments I fell in love with.  

It started the change from bright and colorful Christmas to old fashioned, colorful Christmas at our house.

Some people collect magnets, dolls or shot glasses from all the places they've been but we save Christmas ornaments.  While in Texas this summer I kept an eye out for the perfect ornament and settled on this toy I found in an antique store.  It is made of wire and changes into all kinds of different shapes

These two stuffed animals were the boys' ornaments last year.  It's a tradition that our kids get an ornament every year.  I loved how colorful and playful they were.  The penguin was perfect because Marshall was on the verge of obsessed with the movie Happy Feet during the previous year.

I really had to have this elephant for Tyler's first Christmas because it reminded me of 

his Halloween costume from that year.  I still can't get over what a cute little elephant he was.

This last one is another that I bought because I loved it instead of just to fill space on the tree.  

I'm a big fan of glitter and sparkle at Christmas time.

I hope to one day have my tree filled with all kinds of ornaments that all have a special place in my heart for one reason or another.  I've always had a theme of all colors because I knew one day we'd have a ton of handmade ornaments our kids would make and they wouldn't always fit a rigid color scheme or theme.  This way its all a little random and the eclectic nature will keep everything cohesive.

I hope you're all having a magical Christmas season and find a chance to do something special for someone else.