Christmas in our house (2016).

I love Christmas! We decorated early this year (like mid-November early), and I love it. Many people I know, including some family members, think you shouldn't decorate until after Thanksgiving, but I say you just shouldn't decorate before Halloween. It's the most wonderful time of the year, right? So why wouldn't you want it for two months instead of one? (I know my own husband will probably roll his eyes at that. He's more of an after Thanksgiving person, but he lets me do it anyway. What love.)

I don't proclaim to be excellent at decorating, but I do enjoy it. For Christmas, and for decorating in general, I feel I'm good at picking our random pieces that I like, but struggle with how to put it all together. So, this is what we came up with this year!

I really love this nativity set because it was my great grandmother's. She past away just before Norah was born, a little over two years ago. She was 106!

Kitchen table centerpiece. (My sister-in-law, Elizabeth, actually made this. Thanks! I had tried about 13 different combinations before that.)

Willow Tree nativity. I love this because it's from my mom and she has the same one. She gave us another piece every year we were married until we had the complete set.

Mantle and stockings! (The little plate on the right is my grandma's. I love having family heirloom decorations.)

The tree! Norah miraculously doesn't really touch the tree. She liked looking at the ornaments, but didn't even want to hang them up. She didn't touch it last year either! But still, I put the soft ornaments on the bottom just in case. I have a lot of soft ornaments that my great grandma and grandma made, which turned out great for kids!

Norah's little play tree. My mom got it for her last year.

Kitchen decorations. (My mother-in-law gave me that lantern a few years ago, and I thought it looked so good that I've never changed it.)

The little nativity is from Ecuador. My family went on a missions trip there before my 7th grade year and it was very impactful for me. A couple that went on the trip with us gave that to us as a wedding present. How special!

My mom gave Norah these stickers to make her own advent calendar. She's been enjoying it!

My parents had this advent calendar and this Story of Christmas daily reading advent book when we were young growing up. It took some searching, but I found the same ones and ordered them for Norah! It's fun to do the same things with her that I used to do.

Love teaching her the real reason for Christmas- celebrating Christ's birth!

Merry Christmas and happy decorating!