Tis the Season

Hello there.

Remember me?

The girl who used to write nice things for you to read.

School really had the best of my time for the past several weeks as my first semester of optometry school came to a close.  Let me just say that you should probably appreciate all of your doctors a little more than you may, because professional school is intense....like no other schooling we've been through before; like no amount of studying we've ever studied before; like no amount of late-nighters we've pulled before.  Intense.  But my classmates and I made it through one semester with about 10 more to go!

Enough about that, you guys, it's Christmas time!  I admit I had a Scrooge-like moment due to putting Christmas shopping off until after finals then having to rush gift-finding.  I'm not the best gift-giver ever, but I do like to really put thought into gifts in hopes that who I'm gifting will love and appreciate it.  But the rush made me think what we do with Christmas is a little ridiculous - when it's focused around stuff and making sure everyone gets a lot of it.  Please remember Jesus this time of year and focus on Him for a while in the midst of it all.  Our church presented perhaps the best Christmas play I've ever seen, called Fruitcake.  It summed up Christmas just right, and how Jesus just gets thrown in the fruitcake mix of Christmas.  But of course, (not to sound cliched) He is the reason for the season - the ultimate gift that we should continue to be joyous over.  A little baby with the most enormous impact on the world - to save us.  This we should not forget. Any day of the year really, but let's take the time at Christmas to focus on Him with our families.
(If you want more conviction in your heart about what Christmas has become read the wonderful words of Jamie Nato, who I've referenced before: here.)

We tried to stay simple this year with our Christmas decorations.  One because we don't already own that much, two because we're too cheap to buy a lot at one time, and three because I was just too darn busy to pull it all together!  But, nonetheless we had a tree (however nontraditional) and I spruced up the mantle (oh, yes the mantel - I haven't even taken the time to express my excitement of the mantel that is now hanging on our wall!)

How to cheaply decorate you mantel: borrow garland from your mother-in-law; find cute trees at a yard sale; pick up some tealight candle holders from the Dollar Tree (for real!); and reuse ornaments from last years tree as accent toppers. 

How to make a cheap Christmas tree:  make your husband get out of the car at 10:00 at night to quickly snag branches from a neighbors stick pile and throw them into your trunk as you direct him as to which branches will be the best branches to make your "perfect" shabby tree; make circles with a circle punch and tape back to back around some string; lights optional 

Then we did a little bit of present opening between the two of us. Rather, I did some present opening. A couple of weeks before Christmas, Jesse ordered himself a new phone, which became his big gift.

Maggie helped.

Two person hammock.

Some of my digs.

Oh, and did I mention it was all done by fireside?

MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!