these are a few of my favorite things....

Since the holiday season has officially kicked off, I wanted to blog throughout the month about some of my favorite Christmas activities, traditions, and decorations. So here is the first of hopefully many more (I have been falling behind in the blogging department.)

Nativities:

I absolutely love nativities. I have been collecting them since we were first married. I have about 6 different ones, and I am always wanting more!! I put them all over the house at Christmas time. I personally feel like it's a wonderful reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. They are all so unique, but all tell the same story. I even bought the Fisher Price Little People Nativity set for my kids. One day I hope to own the Precious Moments nativity, and the Willow Tree nativity. I guess those will have to come in the future. :)

Decorating:

I love to decorate at Christmas. I love the colors, lights, ornaments, signs, the sayings, all the different ways to do a tree, etc... I have a glass jar that I change out every month, and put a new decorations in. This time I thought it would be fun to fill it with ornaments. I found these cute little ornaments at walmart. I filled my jar with them, then tied a festive ribbon around. It made a fun, festive table centerpiece.

Christmas Village:

Here is the story behind my Christmas Village. When Clint and I had only been married about 6 months, I started a new job and met one of my all time best friends. She lived with her mom, and the 2 of them had been collecting village pieces for years. Their collection was amazing!! I thought it was so fun, and beautiful! That year she gave me my very first Christmas Village set. It has been several years since then, but I put it out every year. I have picked up a few of my own pieces since then. They are just expensive, and I don't have the money to do all I would love to do with it. I guess in a way it's fun though...to just add to it... a bit here or there throughout the years. I have even enjoyed starting one for my Dad. He has always admired mine. His birthday is in November, and Christmas is his holiday!! So most of the time I get him a new piece for his birthday. It will be fun to see his collection grow as well.