Christmas Decorations!!

Daddy, Moma, Charlie, & Keech's stockings. Hers is tiny b/c we're going to let her choose her own next year, and her little one will go in her bedroom every year.

Our tree :) And all the wrapped gifts. It's alligator skin wrapping paper btw. Lime green & Fusia, with plum purple ribbon & bows. Green and red aren't the only festive colors :)

I finally got to decorate for Christmas on Monday! We usually decorate the day after Thanksgiving, but since our entire family came to GA for Turkey Day and its Red Phase (I'll explain this one in a sec) we had to wait until Monday night. Now, normally I go ALL OUT and it will look like Pier One threw up in my house, but we went minimalist this year. See I'm still pregnant and most of our decorations are still in NC in my parents basement. So we have our stockings, and most of our tree decor. I'm a little bummed we aren't as decorated as usual, but I'm definitely grateful I won't have to deal with the put away process with a newborn. I'm so on it with this Christmas thing though, all of our shopping is done and everything is wrapped! I went last Monday and got it all done in just a few hours, and then came home and immediately wrapped everything. I had a list and new exactly what I was getting everybody, so there was no aimless wandering. I put a lot of thought ahead of time into our gifts this year. Not that I don't every year, just usually I go in with an idea and then it manifests into this fantastic gift that I get super excited to give. I was more organized this year :) Oh and I stayed well under budget! Go me! So that meant I had a little extra to get the random small things I saw and include that as part of people's gifts. Hopefully Charlie will make her grand entrance soon, and we'll be able to go home for Christmas.










Oh and "Red Phase" explanation. When Joe's company picks up a new cycle, or a new basic training class, the first 2 weeks of the cycle are called Red Phase. This consists of 7 day work weeks, and he doesn't get home from work until 8 or 9 o'clock at night, sometimes as late as midnight, and goes in at about 4am every morning. Then when Red Phase is over, it's back to 6 day work weeks and coming home between 5 and 7 o'clock, and goes in at about 5am. It's not a huge difference, but he doesn't get those Sundays off to kinda relax and recharge. It's also our "date" day. So Red Phase kinda sucks, and it kinda gets in the way of family things, but it's worth it.



PS My mom just informed me that she is a closet Gossip Girl fan. She says she's rooting for Blair and Chuck. WTF? I don't even know what she's talking about, but I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants. If you knew my mom, you'd understand why this is so funny.