It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas.....

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Ok, ok.....so maybe it has looked like Christmas for a while now at The Richard's household. November 2nd, to be exact. I think Kevin's words were, "Why does it look like Christmas threw up in our living room two days after Halloween, Missy?"

I just kept my mouth shut and kept on humming "Jingle Bells" while carefully placing the ornaments on the tree. He wasn't gonna ruin my Christmas spirit!

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I can't help it!! I love Christmas....the smells, the music, the decorations and I want to enjoy it without the stress of putting it up to just take it back down again in 30 days. I feel if I put it up at the first of November, I'm more ready to take it down come January.

And so it is.

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And it's beautiful and I LOVE coming home and sitting on the couch with my littles and just staring at the twinkling lights.

And she loves it, too.

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Speaking of twinkling.....


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we finally are able to use our fireplace. When we moved in, we noticed that the owners before us had taken the gas logs and the key from our fireplace...not really sure why. So, last year we didn't use the fireplace. Ever. I begged and begged Kev to have it fixed this year, because I think even though we live in Texas, it's still nice to have a cracklin' fire in the winter. It just goes together like beans and cornbread....Christmas and fire.

So he finally got it all put together last night and it is simply beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. It has amber and clear colored broken glass
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printinginstead of gas logs and the fire just makes it sparkle like diamonds. I love, love, love it!!


Listening to the crackling of the fire, I ceremoniously addressed, stamped, and stuffed all of my Christmas cards last night.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing All but 5....I can't believe I didn't order enough this year. Thank goodness I had a coupon for 5 free photo cards from Shutterfly plus free shipping...now I just have to wait for them to come in the mail. Please don't fret if you haven't received a card from us yet, as you are most likely one of the five.

I love holiday traditions and sharing them with Grayson
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing and now, Rylee. In the past, I have always waited until Grayson was asleep to decorate the tree....something about the peace and calm and quiet while I'm opening each ornament box or unfolding the stockings, I don't know, it puts me in a state of zen...and Lord knows I don't get that often. But this year, I waited until they were awake from their naps to start. I wanted to see through their eyes the transformation that goes along with the trimming and lighting of the tree.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing So I put on some holiday tunes (thank you Direct TV and your many choices)and went to work.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing It was nice....not zen....but nice. After about 20 minutes, Gray was bored and Ry was entranced in the lights.
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My mom gave us alot of her decorations this year...enough for an entire tree. So, Daddy of course had to go to Lowe's and get the kiddos their very own tree. It's precious.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing All the ornaments have an outdoors-woodsy feel to them and it looks adorable in their playroom.

Rylee has a pink tree in her room
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing and Gray has a little tree in his room.
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We also decided this year would be our first year to put up lights outside. Kev and my dad did a fantastic job...
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo PrintingI was really impressed. I love driving home at night and seeing our festive Christmas lights.


I'm all about traditions....so this year I decided to start a new one. Have you heard of The Elf on the Shelf??
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Pottery Barn and Barnes and Noble carries it and I'm sure Amazon, too. It's a beautifully illustrated Christmas book about your very own elf that comes to stay with you through the holidays. He watches you throughout the day to make sure you are being nice and not naughty and then reports to Santa each night. After going to sleep, he magically flies to the North Pole to work in Santa's workshop and is back each morning in a different spot.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing The book actually comes with an eight inch tall elf and it's so fun watching Gray look for him each morning when he wakes up. You also get to name your elf. Ours is "Turtle". Grayson named him. But the deal is....you can't touch him....ever. It will make his magic flying powers go away so he's always up high on a shelf, or a picture, or the top of the curtains, or the fridge looking down.

Grayson is slowly getting the "Santa" thing.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing He knows that he will bring him one very special gift on Christmas Eve if he has been really good.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing The rest of the gifts are from Mommy and Daddy and family to celebrate Jesus's birthday.

He's not so much interested in Santa's workshop and the North Pole
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing as he is in Bethlehem and why Mary and Joseph had to sleep in a stable and why Baby Jesus didn't have a baby bed like Sissy. "Why those wise mans are scared of the angels, Mommy and why Mary's tummy isn't big like when Wywee was in your tummy?" Oh, that kid....so inquisitive! But trust me, I've got answers for all.

That's one thing I'm really good at and it comes naturally....answering the "hard" questions.

While standing in the Apple store one day getting my phone fixed, someone tripped the alarm-Grayson: "Mommy, why is that alarm going off? It's SOOO loud" Me: "Because some little boy wandered too far away from his Mommy".
Whatever works, right?

This Christmas is going to be magical!
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing I love watching Grayson take it all in and constantly asking, "Is today Christmas, Mommy?" "What about today??"

I'm a bit disappointed that this is my first post for December and here it is half way over.....but I have lots of pictures and stories,
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing I just have to find the time to post them. You would think staying at home now that I would have plenty of time, but these two keep me busy from about 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and then I just want to cuddle on the couch with Kev and enjoy a nice glass (or two) of wine.

One of these days I will be on top of things. The laundry will be washed and folded and put away, dinner will be on the table when Kevin walks in the door, I will have showered and brushed my teeth and maybe even put on a little make up, and the house will look like I spent hours cleaning it for longer than 2 minutes. One of these days I will be able to blog a little bit every other day with two hands typing instead of one, while the other holds a very needy 4 month old.


But you know what????

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When that day comes, I will wish from the bottom of my soul that I have that little 4month old bouncing on my knee while typing with one hand and a 3 1/2 year old two steps behind me pulling out ALL the toys that I just cleaned up.

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And so it goes.


Vicious, meet my friend......Circle.