An open heart

I Love Christmas, I love the crafts, projects, decorating, celebrating, shopping, giving, spending time with family, Christmas parties, oh i could go on and on, there is so much! and it's raining Christmas in my house!!! our tree's up, some of the decorations, lights on the house, I just feel so excited this year, maybe it's because my kids are getting older, and can really enjoy things, they are so excited to helping with lots of things.

check this cute wreath i made all by myself, i don't usually like the old style of wreaths, but have always wanted on, so this simple, cutesy wreath is just perfect for me.


we hung ornaments in the windows, which i love!! thanks better homes and garden magazine, for such a cute simple idea.


got our stockings up, we don't have a fireplace, so we make the front window "do"



We made a countdown out of Christmas socks, with little treats in them for each day, starting Dec. 1st, plus there are 5 different socks so the kids will get new socks too, they are very excited.



My favorite thing out of all of this, is decorating the Christmas tree, every ornament is a special treasure to me. we have our first Christmas together, our babies first Christmas, with each year, we let our kids add a christmas ornament to the tree, picking out what they love at the age, or making something by hand, so as I unwrap every ornament, it brings me back, it tells our story, from being a newly married couple, to having 5 beautiful kids, My tree is a time capsule for me, yes sometimes I cringed as my boys pick out darth vador for the tree, but now looking back I remember how in love with darth vador Hayden was at 4, and it brings me back, it tells our story, so from far away my tree can look like a mess, but each branch holds a piece of my heart, and one day as my kids marry and get a tree of there own, I'll let them take some of their ornaments to decorate their very own tree. this is my favorite tradition we started when Brennan was the little guy.

Brennan, Leighton and Ashlyn made their own this year


Here's some of my favorite ornaments my kids have picked out, or over the years have special meaning to me, for what they represent, what they speak to only me.




and to make this day even better my new rug came today, and I love it!! and the kids loved it more, they played on it like it was they best toy in the world, they all want to sleep on it tonight, i love kids! they really know how to enjoy the everything.


here's what it looks like with no kids, it's a little unsettled still from being brand new.


let the countdown begin!