Merry Christmas Eve blog readers!! Our family has always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve — a tradition that my dad brought over from Germany! So today is the big day! We decorate gingerbread houses, head to the Christmas Eve church service, then come back and enjoy a big dinner…THEN we all gather around the Christmas tree and decide on the order of the present opening…usually we decide on opening them youngest to oldest…and then we open ONE gift at a time in order…the process usually lasts well past midnight…I’m a big family person so I love this tradition because it ensures that our whole family spends lots of time together on Christmas! Does anyone else’s families open presents like this?

And now I get to celebrate Christmas DAY with Ryan’s family too! I love being married because I get to adopt some of Ryan’s family traditions and Ryan and I get to start our own! Like going iceskating in the city (which didnt end up being as romantic as it was supposed to be thanks to the zillions of screaming kiddos)…and putting up our Christmas decorations while listening to Christmas music and drinking Ryan’s world famous vanilla hot cocoa…(ok it’s not actually world famous but it SHOULD be…)

This year we didnt end up decorating as much as last year…I think I was worn out because we JUST finished setting up our house and havnt even finished putting up normal decorations yet…it’s getting there though!! I just felt like I was in a little over my head with unpacking and working and trying to get all of my business stuff in order…Putting up Christmas decorations is relaxing though and I’m hoping to have more time to work on them next year! I really want to make more of my own decorations…decorating on a budget can be tricky if you dont have a lot of time to invest in making things! Anyway…just for fun here’s a little peek at the Christmas decor we did put up this year in our new home!

Here are the little trees I made…

We call this our mantel even though it’s actually just the top of our TV armoire…one day we will have a real fireplace I hope!

Next year I want to decorate all of our built in shelves!

The stockings were hung by the front door with care (since we dont have a mantel! haha!) I love our stockings from World Market…

Our tree! I love the striped bows…

These are paper flowers that I made for our wedding…They used to be peach but I spray painted them gold to put on our tree!

One of my favorite ornaments obviously…

My mom made that sweet stocking for my dad!

The pearls in our centerpiece are the same ones I wore to my high school prom…

I hope you are enjoying lots of time with your family today!! Merry Christmas!