The Christmas Season

Ok everyone - this post will be a long one!

The Christmas season is always jam-packed and a bit hectic for our family. I really enjoy Christmas - most everyone does. But as the years go by, I find the holiday season more and more stressful for me. Buying and wrapping gifts. Looking for a tree. Decorating the house. Trying to visit with as many friends and family members as I can. Trying to provide support to Bri as she goes through mid-terms at school. It is a lot of work, time and energy. It is mid-January and I am still recovering from December.

Despite all the work, I did have a really nice holiday season. This is a post with all the activities we did leading up the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

One of the first things I try to do at Christmastime is send out my Christmas cards...

And then I work on decorating all the trees.

The main tree...

Upstairs tree...

China tree...

Bri's bedroom tree...

Bri's bedroom ready for Christmas...

Mei enjoying the fire and decorations...

As I mentioned in a previous post, the jig was up when it came to Santa Claus this year. And with that, the jig was up when it came to poor Red the Elf too. We still moved him around the house a bit for fun - Bri and I took turns moving him...

And of course, I just had to get this ornament for my tree this year...

Doug always does a great job decorating the outside of our house...

I set up the Lego village and train. I'm always nervous I'm going to break something...

Christmas coming means lots of wrapping of course...

Mei was such a big help with wrapping. Not sure what I would do without her...

We visited the Governor's mansion as I mentioned previously (I will do a full post on that soon)...

My friend Amy hosted a really fun Christmas party one evening in December...

While we were partying, Bri got to spend the evening with her friend Imerie...

I enjoyed a lovely Christmas lunch with my besties...

One of my gifts from the luncheon...

Bri decorated a gingerbread house...

We went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens one evening with our friends the M family (a separate post on that will come soon)...

Kathy made this sign for me and gave it to me for Christmas. I love it so much...

We did our annual cookie baking with Gramma, Aunt Amy and the cousins...

And the icing on the cake of our Christmas season was getting a visit from my brother-in-law Wes and sister-in-in law Ann...

We all went to see the Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the High Museum of Art (a separate post will come soon)...

Bri loved playing games with Uncle Wes...

We exchanged gifts with them on Christmas Eve morning...

Look at this adorable cap...

Bri might have to fight Doug for it (snort)...

We loved having W & A visit the weekend before Christmas. It had been too long since we had seen them. Briana LOVES spending time with them. We can't let too much time go by before seeing them again!

See how busy we were in December? Whew!

My next post will be about visiting the Governor's Mansion. What a cool experience!