Decking the Halls!

I want to tell you about our honeymoon but I'll just throw in random posts now and then about that...

Today I want to tell you about our first time to decorate for Christmas together!

As most of you know, Christmas is sort of my holiday. Not like I own it...but it's my favorite. I love everything about it. Getting married (in Florida) less than a month before Christmas sort of messes with standard decorating procedure....

So as of December 13th, I still hadn't finished my shopping...and I hadn't STARTED addressing cards, wrapping gifts or even...gasp...putting up a SINGLE decoration. You understand my panic, don't you?

Ryan knew that I had somewhat of an...ahem...obsession...with Christmas decor, but I'm not sure he grasped the enormity of the situation. (And it was one of those things I may or may not have purposely neglected to tell him BEFORE the wedding. I'm not stupid, people!!)

But the closer we got to Christmas...I began to panic more. Even if I scaled down, which I planned to do just for this year, how in the world would I choose what to put up? And the thought of dragging the dozen or more tubs out of the attic to pilfer through them...made me tired.

And so it was that Amy, one of my co-workers, came up with this completely brilliant plan. As I processed out loud to her on Thursday, she said to me, What if you got out...say...four tubs...and whatever is in them...is what you use?

I stared at her for a minute and a little smile found its way onto my face. I said, "I'm intrigued!!!" I proposed the plan to Ryan and he was on board! So Thursday night, he waded through the attic and came out with these:

In those tubs...my surprise Christmas decor! I had no idea what we might have. I hoped it was the right stuff. :) As it turned out, it was the perfect blend of decorations for our first Christmas together. We only had to go back in the attic to get lights, as there were ZERO lights in any of these tubs.

What we DID have in the tubs...were our stocking holders! I was so excited, because our very first "first Christmas" purchase this year...was a set of stockings, which he had his cousin monogram with our names. I cannot TELL you how much I love this picture. Two stockings by a fireplace...placed there by my husband. God really does answer prayer in such a big way. :)

I got right to work wrapping the branches of the tree for the living room. (And my Princess Santa hat was in the tub, so I got to wear that!)

After painstakingly wrapping the lower section, I started to add the middle section on top and realized...um...I'd accidentally put the middle section IN THE BASE. WOOPSIE!!! We got a good laugh out of that and switched them. I started over wrapping the bottom section....

It was SO delightful to have help with the lights. He untangled all the strands, tested them for me, and then helped me pass them around the tree. Went so much faster than when I had to do this by myself!!

Then we started doing ornaments. I should preface this by saying that normally my living room tree is a Victorian looking tree with old fashioned ornaments, gold instrument ornaments, tons of ribbons, flowers, sprigs, sprays and much, much more. This year, the only ornaments that showed up were the great big goldish balls that normally go on this tree and the regular sized blue ornaments that normally go on the bedroom tree. We started assembling....

...and as we worked, Ryan said, "Do you notice anything about this tree?" I said, "It doesn't match his room?" He said, "Besides that." I said, "No ribbon?" He said, "Besides that." I stared and studied for the longest time and coming up with nothing, I gave up. He said, "It's our wedding colors."

You can think what you want about that, but I loved that. I loved it that our random, mostly-unbekahlike-tree for our first Christmas together is actually THE perfect tree. It's a simple starter tree, decked in the colors we used on our wedding day. And God knew it. He knew what was in the tubs. I believe He cares about stuff like that. :)

Another of my favorite pictures...Ryan putting the star on our tree.

Our little living room for our first Christmas. Braeya's stocking under the tree...our little ode-to-the-wedding tree in the corner, our stockings by the fireplace, and our & sign up on the wall. Yes. I love this living room.

We did find a few other random decorations in the tubs that I'll scatter around the house soon. But I love this simple look.

We also lucked out with a tiny tree in one of the tubs, so we put that on the dresser in our bedroom and added the five ornaments we've collected as a couple (most of them gifts).

 Our little tree that we can see from our bed. I love it. :)

And underneath it, my family Bible that my grandparents had in their home (which is our first home). This is the Bible on the front of my book, too. :)

And another purchase we made this year:

I've never kissed under mistletoe before.

I love this life.