The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

YAY! I love Christmas so much!!! I think I began to appreciate the holiday season much more when I was a junior in college in 2006. It was my first time being away from home for a majority of the holidays because I had to work. I was left in Carbondale, alone, in an empty apartment, with nothing to do but go to work and watch movies all by myself after I was off. Not fun! I would listen to “Please come home for Christmas” on repeat, and then cry. Haha. I hated knowing that my family and Craig were home back in Red Bud and I was stuck in the Dirty Dale.

Most colleges and universities have finals week the first or second week of December, depending on how early or late Thanksgiving is that year. Our semester breaks also lasted about 4 weeks, but if you were lucky to have all of your finals done in the first few days of finals week, you could go home and have a longer break. My roommates and I would always decorate our apartment for Christmas on Veteran’s Day so we could enjoy it longer, rather than only for a week or two after Thanksgiving. From there on out, I always get into the Christmas spirit right after Halloween is over. I love it! Craig on the other does not. He would rather wait until after Thanksgiving to put up all of the decorations. I know marriage is supposed to be about compromise, but I didn’t listen to him this year. I started decorating the inside on the 15th of November. And then I did the outside (with the help of my mom) on the 19th because I wanted it done for the whole Holiday Happenings weekend. I am still not done decorating, because I don’t have very many decorations yet. Some of the decorations I have from college are cheesy and I’m not putting them up! I am still looking for another tree for the middle room (9’ and skinny) and we still have to finish hanging lights outside. So here are a few pics of our house at Christmas time!

Oh yeah and we got a new couch. The other one was too small, and this sectional really helps utilize space in our smaller sized living room that doesn’t have very many options for a layout! It is so comfy!!! It is in 5 pieces so if we ever need to move it we can put it in a different shape.

Here is the tree in our bedroom. It is dinky, I know. This was the tree I bought to go in our apartment back in 2006. It was 25 bucks pre-lit, I was a poor college student… it was perfect back then!

I bought these branch things from a home decorating party that Nicolette had, I twistie-tied them together and had Candace’s mom make the bows that cover up the loops I tied together. I think they look awesome! They are on both in the living room, on the doorway to the master and the doorway to the middle room.

And here is our first Christmas tree!!!

Ignore the clutter, not everything has found it’s place yet here!

This nativity set was a gift from my Grandma Koch when I was little. She gave them to all of the grandkids. I have always put it up in my bedroom, I love it! This is all we have for now, hopefully in the future we will be able to get a bigger one, but this will work for now!

Next year should be MUCH better, since we will have a banister on the steps and I can wrap it in garland and light it up and hang our stockings from it. Oh I can’t wait! I wish it was done this year! It would be nice if our upstairs was also done next year… wishful thinking!

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays with their families!