The Holiday Spirit

Every year I think oh I should do some of those cheesy things that people do at Christmas like put lights on my house, decorate a gingerbread house, walk though a Christmas store (just for example). So this year I decided that even if I do just a few of those things I will feel more into the whole spirit of Christmas. So today Abby and I decorated a gingerbread house. Now before you get really impressed at what a great job we did, I have to admit that I did buy the kit which had all of the necessary items in it, because with Chris working today I just didn't know how I would have time to bake all the pieces, and besides for the price, it had everything already in one place.
So I put it together with some help from my assistant, and Abby did all the decorating, minus those pieces that she just had to eat (which is half of the fun of doing a house to begin with). The first time we got it together she had half of the roof decorated when the whole thing feel apart, so more glue aka frosting was needed to secure it in place. I think she did pretty good for her first house.
So here are a few other pictures of decorating that I put up to get the house ready for Christmas. The stockings which my mother has bought each time we add a new member to the house. Abby chose who got which stocking holder.

The Christmas tree, not a great picture here, but it was day time, and they always look better at night. If you look really close you will see that there are no ornaments on the bottom 1/3 of the tree, a preventative measure with a one year old running around. I didn't put a lot of decorations on because it seems to entice the young children to the tree, maybe next year I can put some more stuff on. When people come over and say, oh what a pretty tree did you help your mom decorate, Abby's reply is "no, mommy did it all by herself". This sounds mean, but I am a firm believer in I get a tree for all my decorations and the kids should get their own tree with all their home made stuff on it. I can't get Chris to give on this, so until then I will decorate my own tree, just the way I like it.

I hope to have some presents under it soon, it does look so bare.
Some fun decorations that I have acquired over the years from family and friends.
Some more decorations, the snowmen were stocking holders, but they don't fit on the mantel, so I thought this was a good place for them.
I am really enjoying!! the holidays this year, I think something about having little ones really makes it fun. Abby keeps talking about Santa coming soon, I just can't wait!!