it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Take a look at the newest members of our family...

Meet Kit Kittredge and Julie Albright!
Over Thanksgiving, the girls got their first "official" American Girl Dolls from their Grandpa and Mimi! For a long time now, Addie and Ellee have been hauling around poor Molly...


As you can see, this sweet thing has seen better days! This is my American Girl Doll from 20 years ago! I've loved seeing them play with Molly, but Grandpa and Mimi thought it was time for them to have one of their very own! There were no objections to that!

Along with Kit and Julie, look where we spent Thanksgiving Day...


No, no - this is not our new house! :) My family, along with my parents, went to The Biltmore on Thanksgiving Day. As you can imagine, it was absolutely beautiful!


We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are now gearing up for Christmas. Like many people, this is my absolute favorite time of the year! I love the excitement and anticipation of the season. For me, even the most mundane tasks, like grocery shopping, seem a little more exciting because of the decorations and Christmas music! My girls also think it's the most wonderful time of the year! Last year I made something to help us count down to Christmas Day.


I got this idea from a friend (Thanks Donetta!) and made just a few changes. This is a super easy project and I actually made about 10 of them in one night. It's just a piece of green felt cut into the shape of a rectangle with 25 small pieces of ribbon sewn down the middle.

I hot glued the top over about an inch so that a piece of ribbon could slide through as a hanger. Then I printed out the poem on a yellow piece of paper, cut it out and used modge podge to attach it to a wooden star (bought at Hobby Lobby for less than $1) and hot glued the star on top. Super Easy!

{Each evening when goodnights are said, take off one candy and hop into bed. When only the star is left to shine, that's when you'll know it's Christmas time!}
Our tradition has been that the we allow the girls to take of one candy cane at night (beginning December 1st) and then have them tell us one thing they are thankful for. It's really a fun thing to do!

One line from a Christmas song keeps playing over and over in my head as we enjoy this wonderful time of year. It's from a song the choir at our church in Tennessee used to sing. "To think that God could shrink Himself into the Milky Way." I know very little (even that's giving myself too much credit!) about astronomy, but I did do a little research to find out that the Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter. My tiny brain can't comprehend that, but I know it's HUGE! But God had to shrink Himself into that when He left His throne to come to earth in the form of a baby to redeem His people. That is truly the wonder and amazement of Christmas!