Christmas in the De Jong home!

This Christmas is especially exciting because we get to decorate our own house for the first time! I love decorating for Christmas, so being able to do it in our first house is really special. We are so thankful for this house.

Kley put up Christmas lights a few weeks ago when it was still warm(er) outside, and it was worth it because we've already had two big snowstorms! I love driving up to our house and seeing the lights on. 

Norah's nativity set (and the cute big girl table she got for her birthday!).

Advent calendar/books. We are excited to do these with Norah this year (even though she can't quite understand), because these two things are exactly what my mom and dad had for us growing up!

My mom gave us a part of the Willow Tree Nativity set every year for a few years, and now we have the whole thing. I love it and it's so fun to get it out each Christmas.

Front door wreath and window stickers (for Norah, even though I would have wanted to put them up anyways even if we didn't have Norah because my teacher heart loves them).

We had quite the conundrum with getting our tree up this year (buying a pre-lit one and some lights didn't work, returning it, getting an unlit one, then having to get more lights because our lights didn't work either), but it's up! We still need to get a tree skirt and angel/star for the top, but it's good for now. Norah has been surprisingly good with it! She mostly leaves it alone, and has been fairly gentle to it.

We get to put up three stockings this year! (Technically we could have last year too, but we didn't decorate last year because we moved over Christmas.) The "Christmas is Coming" book is an old one from my grandma.

This nativity set is really special because it was my great grandma's. She passed away just a few days before Norah was born, and we got her nativity set. It was neat to put it up for the first time this year.

This tin plate was my grandma's too! They recently downsized, so they gave the grandkids a few of their things.

This nativity set is from Ecuador. I went there on a mission trip when I was 12, and a couple that went with us (who travels a ton), gave this set to me as a wedding present!

Merry Christmas and happy decorating! (Also, I decorated the earliest I've ever decorated this year in mid-November, and I have no shame.)