It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The process of decorating my apartment for Christmas took over two weeks, but it is finally finished. Ever since I moved in in August, I have been planning how to decorate (it's a sickness, I know!). This was my first time to ever put up outside Christmas lights. I had to buy a connector to plug them in through the outside light, because there's no outside outlet. But it worked, and I'm happy with my lights. Of course, I chose the coldest night of the season so far to put up the lights, but I survived.

The next night, Amanda and Zack came up to help me decorate my Christmas tree. It's always depressing to decorate all alone, so I was so excited to have the company.

Here's a few pics of the finished product - I think it looks really festive and pretty. I'm especially excited about the garland on the ledge between the living room and scrapbook room.

Willow Nativity

Nutcrackers and other decorations

the nativity Dad made me

my lovely tree, with stars and without

Then, when I went home for Thanksgiving, I had to help Mom put up her tree. It's tradition! We had a lot of fun decorating, even though it took a couple of days to finish it all. But the result was absolutely beautiful.

a small sampling of the ornaments waiting to be placed on the tree

Dad doing his job - placing the angel on top

a present under the tree already!

all finished!