'Tis the Season

This past week we got to decorating our little home. I did not put as much out as I usually do since we are in a smaller space and decorated a little later than usual. We had a good time decorating this year and Ben surprised me by helping decorate the tree with ornaments (He usually sets the tree up and does all the lights and I do all the ornaments.). Now that the older girls are getting bigger they wanted to help so we made it a fun family activity for the season.

 This mantle makes my heart happy! Now that our family is complete we have filled all our letters and ordered all our stockings! There is just something about knowing that this will be our completed mantle for many years to come!

 Ben turned the fireplace on the T.V. (HA!) and put on some Christmas music. We made some hot chocolate and got to decorating!

 Even Mia got in on the action and cheered us on!

 Finished tree minus our topper!

 My GrannyFranny sent all the grandkids some of the gold ornaments that her and my grandfather, PePaw, used on their tree. Each year they added to their collection and these were the ornaments they put on the tree that was at their house each year. I have many memories of sitting under their tree opening gifts each year and I am so happy and honored to have some of these ornaments on our tree now and pass them on to my girls in the years to come. All of my grandparents played a huge role in my life. It is like I had 6 parents and this set lived only two hours from us. I spent many days growing up with them guiding who I was becoming and those times played a huge role in making me the woman and mother I am today. 

This year we had a smaller tree due to our smaller space and could not put all of them on, but I made sure to put a few. I put on a train which is something that always reminds me of my grandfather and something that Ben loves. I also put on the snowflakes with the year 2009. 2009 was a year that brought lots of change for us. It was the year that Ellie was born, which brought us immense joy and sadly was the year my grandfather passed away. He passed away the summer before Ellie was born, but I am confident he is in Heaven and has watched over us for many years and through what he taught me is a part of my girls' lives daily.