IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK ALOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!!

Normally, I don't start decorating for Christmas until the weekend after Thanksgiving but this year we will be at my Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving and I didn't want to wait for the next weekend. I love Christmas and I love to decorate for it. We have 5 totes full of just tree ornaments. The kids swear the tree is going to fall over. We really need another tree or two but I just don't have room for them right now. I love ornaments and the more the better.

When Rusty and I first got married we had to combine our Christmas traditions. That sounds easy but sometimes not. Growing up we always had Christmas stockings. They weren't full of expensive things just a new toothbrush, toothpaste, razors, little toys when we were kids, shampoo, things like that, and none of it was wrapped. Rusty's family had presents in theirs, I've gotten diamond earrings, perfume, movies, you get the picture. AND EVERYTHING WAS WRAPPED! Do you know how long it takes to wrap chapstick, shampoo and crayons?! As kids our big presents were always unwrapped, put together and sitting in front of the tree for the awe factor when you walked into the room on Christmas morning. Rusty likes everything to be wrapped, so you have more to open. I haven't had alot of different stockings in my lifetime but I do have all of them, still.

This is my first stocking, my Mom has always referred to it as my "hot pants". I can still remember being a little girl and using this on Christmas. This stocking was bought for me by my great grandmother.

This was the next stocking I used. My Mawmaw made this for me. Steven has one just like it with his name on it. I used this stocking for a long time and it was just in the last couple years that my Mom parted with them and gave them to us. She still displayed them every Christmas.

This is the one I can remember using the most and still use to this day. My Mawmaw also made this one. Everyone in my family has one that she made. Using them on Christmas is like having a piece her with us still.


This is the one Mawmaw made for Rusty.

And these are the kids stockings.

This is the stocking Rusty bought me our first Christmas married. Yes, it really is that big and yes it was completely stuffed. Rusty is like a little kid at Christmas. He absolutely loves Christmas. He loves to buy presents for people and he loves to search the house from top to bottom looking for his gifts. That is something he has done since he was a little boy. He stayed home sick from school one day and found a Redskins shirt that he had really wanted, when his Mom came home he was wearing it. lol He is not opposed to unwrapping and rewrapping gifts either. Gotta love him. I refuse to let anyone tell me what they are giving him because he will annoy the hell out of me trying to find out what it is. He will always be that little boy waiting for Santa.

Until you get married you never realize how different other peoples Christmas morning can be, you just assume that everyone does it the same way you do. We always had a light breakfast with a big Christmas dinner later normally around 2:00 or 3:00. Rusty's family has this huge wonderful breakfast with more food than any of us could ever eat in a 2 days. My mother in law in up at the crack of dawn starting breakfast and has it waiting for everyone when they arrive. When you get to my Mom's you can smell the turkey that has been cooking and your mouth starts to water when you walk in the door. Both mornings are different from the other but they are both so wonderful. Houses full of family and love, what more could a person ask for?

What kind of Christmas tradition does your family does your family do every year? Do you do stockings and do you wrap every damn thing in it?