It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

We finally have our Christmas tree and decorations up! I love our house all decorated for Christmas - the smells, the lights, the colors - everything! I'll have to take some pictures when we get the final touches done. Clay came back from his Vegas trip late Friday night, so we spent all Saturday morning decorating the tree and getting everything out. Ethan was hilarious with the ornaments - with every ornament he would say, "Oooohhh, more! Christmas ball!" And then he would hang them on the tree. I'm not sure if it's all 2 year olds or just ours, but he is fascinated with anything tall or high. So, he of course wanted to put all of his ornaments at the top of the tree. We have a few too many now at the top, but that's the way he likes it so it's okay by me.

Saturday night was our Bible class Christmas party and it was so much fun. We started out at my parents' house for appetizers and of course everything was perfect. The house was decorated beautifully, the Christmas music was playing, and the food was excellent. Mom and Dad - you did a great job and we all had a great time. We stayed there for about an hour, and then all 25 of us loaded up and went to another house where 4 of the widowed/single ladies at our church had the main course. The lady who hosted built her house in 1961 and it was an amazing place. I just love the feel of those older houses and how "lived in" they are. From there we all went to the Gaylord Texan to see the ice show. If you haven't been, I would highly recommend it - mainly because Texans don't ever get to see anything like that. They give you a big parka to wear before you go in because it's 9 degrees in there. You walk through rooms and rooms of ice sculptures (hopefully I can get some pictures up soon - a friend has them on her camera), and then the last room has 3 ice slides. Obviously I didn't slide, but most of the group did and I think I had just as much fun watching them. It was a great bonding time for our Bible class.

Then yesterday we darted out of church and headed up to McKinney for a Christmas party with our old small group from Prestoncrest. I knew that I missed those friends, but had no idea how much I missed them until we were all back together again. When we first started meeting there was only one couple with a baby (and now they're pregnant with their 4th), and so we all really bonded through our first pregnancies, buying our first homes, changing jobs, etc. I pray that even though Clay and I live an hour away now, we can still get together every now and again. I'm kicking myself for not getting any group photos. But I did get a few good ones of Ethan because the lighting was so good in Kirk and Sonal's living room. Ellisons - thank you for hosting yesterday and for including us in the party...you don't know how nice it was for us to be with all of you guys again.

So, after putting up decorations and 2 Christmas parties, we're definitely in the holiday spirit. Now if I can just finish up my shopping and get the presents wrapped, I can just relax and enjoy the rest of the month!