Getting Ready for Christmas!

This is our eighth Christmas together, and yet it is the first that that Tom and I will be having our own Christmas. We've always been lucky to either live close to or travel home to our parents for Christmas. Since we are in Michigan now, working full time, paying off student loans, buying a car, and having a baby...it was probably not a good idea to go home this year. We were both a little sad not to be surrounded by our extended family but excited to begin our own family traditions. We've are figuring out how to combine many traditions, which foods to make, and how to organize Christmas. It has been a lot of fun. We also had to decorate our home for the first time. We've never had our own tree (unless you count a tiny one we used in Utah) or had stockings. We decided to buy a real tree this year and so one night we went as a family to a local tree lot to pick it out. Ainsley loved running up and down the aisles looking at all the Christmas trees. We picked out the perfect one and came home to decorate it together listening to Christmas music. Yesterday we did all of our food shopping and it made me appreciate my mother so much more. There is so much planning involved with Christmas baking, but it is one of my favorite memories growing up. The whole family got involved on Christmas Eve and we would blast the music as we cooked. I will really miss listening to Amy Grant and Michael Bolton with my sisters as they make Apples and Sausage, meatballs, cheeseballs, slush, fudge, and cookies tomorrow. I will be doing it here with Tom and thinking of you:)