It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

This past weekend was filled full of Christmas cheer. Saturday we took off with Tiffani and her family and Julie and her family and all headed to Stone Mountain for a "Stone Mountain Christmas." Jon and I have been wanting to do this for years, so we were very excited. We had a great time with our friends. The biggest thing was it was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G cold at night. We were so cold we could not feel our toes. After we left we took off to Cracker Barrel for some good ole' Southern cooking. I was so excited because I actually got our Christmas stockings there for 40% off. We have had the same stockings for about 8 years now and I hate them. You can hardly put anything in them at all. This year I had actually bought fabric to make us some stockings; however, I CAN NOT motivate myself to sew, so I was really excited when I found our stockings!!!

Jon and I on the "Singing Train" Jon was really such a trooper. The SEC championship was going on that night. I told him the kids and I could just go, but he refused. He came along, but he did remind me that this was "the biggest game of the year" (he says that about all of them). My sister would call and text me with updates. We were pulling hard for Bama - Roll Tide! But the FL Gators pulled it off!
Alec and Connor after Alec burned his mouth with hot chocolate. I guess he didn't take them seriously when it said HOT chocolate. Poor thing! His mouth was scolded and I think he was really, really embarrassed.

Tim, Avery, and Julie on the "Singing Train"

Tiffani and Me on "Singing Train"

JuJu and Hanna (can you believe these girls are in the same grade? JuJu is super small and Hanna is super tall)

Sweet Avery. This cute kiddo is a great source of entertainment. I could literally watch him roll his eyes all day long. He was so very good! Can't you just eat him up?

Hanna Boo and Me

Best Friends - This is Ash and her best friend, Beth

Me and Julie in Santa Hats

Stone Mountain town lit up at night

Santa and Mrs. Claus

Waiting on the laser show. We were F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G!!!!

Avery and Tim

These 3 beauties went to church with me on Sunday - aren't they precious? Beth came home with us after we ate at Cracker Barrel. The girls had a GREAT time!

We only went to Sunday School on Sunday and skipped church. We really needed to get our Christmas tree and Sunday night we had something going on. It was really cold, so we picked out our tree really fast. Here are the girls freezing.

The perfect tree for our family

Jon and Alec loading the tree onto Jon's truck

Hanna decorating the tree

Beth and Ash decorating the tree

Alec chose to watch the Falcons game with Jon. However, decorating the tree is one of my favorite things at Christmastime. I put Christmas music on and we sing together. Every year I put on the lights and every year the lights and I fight. I always plug them in together and make sure all of them work before I string them on the tree. Just about every year I get so mad because I will string them up and be so excited to light up the tree and NOTHING! They will not work. Usually Jon will come to my rescue and figure it out for me. So before I plugged it in I asked the girls who they thought would win the fight this year - me or the lights? They all voted for me and, guess what? They were right. I started high-fiving the girls I was so excited!!!

This year as I watched the girls decorate This year as I watched the girls decorate the tree my eyes filled with tears. I was just overwhelmed at God's goodness and how He has blessed me. It really gave me a craving for my home to be filled with lots of children. I prayed that whatever His will was that He would just fill my home with as many children as He would have! (Please don't mistake this as baby fever. I do not have baby fever!)I was just really trying to savor the moment. I know that I am going to blink and pretty soon it will be just me decorating my tree. I loved to hear the girls' excitement as they found different ornaments. I let them have free reign. I told them to be as creative as they liked. They used ribbon, beads, etc. There have been years in the past when I really wanted to have a "Southern Living" tree. My mother-in-law has the most beautiful Christmas tree. But growing up my mom always let us decorate the tree however we liked, and I can remember this making me feel so special. So I always let the kids do it and leave it just like they decorate it! However, I did decorate the mantle.

Our mantle

The Finished Tree!

Later that evening we went over to Stephanie and Barry's for an ornament swap. Oh My Goodness! This was so much fun! We stole and got stolen from. We would plot within our family to try and get the ornaments we wanted. Funny thing is, we had the largest family there! It was all in good fun. Thanks Steph for such a fun time. Here we all are showing off our ornaments!