favorite memories 3 {Christmas 2009}

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the decorations. When Ella saw other homes with lights on, she reminded Lynn every day that it was time to put up our lights. We love how simple and beautiful all white bulbs look. When I finally started bringing bins of decorations up from the storage room and you'd have thought it was already Christmas! Ella was so excited. She would tell me twenty times a day, "Let's decorate...it's time to decorate!" She wanted to help with everything. She'd sneak items out of the bins and place them on doorknobs and backs of chairs. She managed to wrap an entire pine garland around a table in her room while I was wrapping one on the banister! I loved decorating our home together and seeing that it brought her as much happiness as it brings me.

My little helper:

A few of my favorite things:

1. I asked Ella to decorate the sign we keep on the porch. She drew Jesus and a Christmas tree. 2. I hung snowflakes and shiny silver bulbs from the chandelier in the kitchen. 3. Red gingham and dots together--love it! 4. One of my favorite ornaments--love the buttons. 5. I bought Ella her own four foot white tree for her room. We decorated it with princesses, of course! She hung her pink and white bead necklaces all over it and told me it was so she wouldn't have bad dreams. 6. I made these place holders with each person's name on them for Christmas dinner. 7. I love monograms. Our tree is filled with the first letters of each of our kids' names. 8. I love this little set so much I keep it on my plate holder in the kitchen all year. Ella will only use these cups for hot cocoa. 9. Ella made her first handmade ornament at preschool. I love, love, love it--especially with all the cute buttons. 10. This was quite a temptation for little ones, so it was hung high on the tree. 11. I love snowmen. 12. I love the ribbon and ric-rac on this ornament. 13. More ribbon. 14. When our other kids were younger, my brother's family used to give us a new Christmas book each year. I loved the tradition. We started reading them to Ella this year. I bought a few paperback books from Scholastic before Christmas and wrapped them up in fun paper. Ella got to open one each night and then we'd read it before she went to bed. 15. More dots. 16. I wrap all the gifts in the same paper each year to match our red and white tree. And of course it's usually dots.