Trim Up the Tree.

I ran into Santa Claus at JC Penney today. I'm pretty sure he was the really thing. He had on shiny black boots, a gorgeous suit with gold buttons, and a real beard. And it couldn't have been the mall Santa because I had just seen the mall Santa with a long line of kids waiting to see him. I was headed toward the elevator down a back hall with Carly. She was in her carseat-stroller combo pack and had been passed out for several hours. Santa asked if he could take a peek and, of course, raved about how cute she was. I was so so sad that I didn't have my camera. How fun would it have been to get a picture of Carly and Santa in the back hallway of JC Penney instead of posed on his throne? Of all the times I forget to shove my camera into my diaper bag . . .

It got cold in Knoxville. Up until Thanksgiving we were holding steady around 70. It was glorious and Carly and I marveled in our morning walks. Alas, all good things come to an end, and now its cold. But I'm sure its not really that cold. I have just been wonderfully spoiled by Tennessee's mild winters. I seriously do not miss icy roads and feet of snow. I keep complaining of how cold it is now, and Chris has begun worrying about how I will fare if we end up moving to Michigan.






On Saturday we left the house around noon and were shocked to find snow. It was all gone by the time the evening came, but it still counts as Carly's first snowfall. Doesn't she look thrilled?

And we finally decorated our tree. I put it up a week ago mostly to add light to our over-head-light-less living room. Last night Chris and I went back and forth decorating while the other one held Carly. I love decorating our tree. This is our fourth Christmas so we are gradually building a decent collection of ornaments. This year we couldn't even use them all.

Putting our star on the top of the tree.

She's like "Real funny, daddy."

Family. Sorry I look so glamorous in this picture.

Speaking of ornaments, I really love ornaments. My parents have a massive collection, and they aren't the fancy ones that all match. They are homemade by their children through the years and collected on different vacations and symbolize different life events. Chris's parents' collection is the same way. That's how our collection is. I thought I'd share a few favs:

The Missionary. My mom got him for Chris during for our first married Christmas.

Newlyweds. This one was a wedding gift.

The starfish surfer. We got this one on our honeymoon in Southern California.

And a new favorite. Carly's baby ornament, glass baby shoes. It was given to Carly by my grandmother. I love this because my baby ornament is also a pair of glass shoes tied together with a pink ribbon. I still love being the one to hang it up every Christmas. Now every year Carly will get to hang these on the tree.