Looking alot like Christmas

It's looking a lot like Christmas at my house and I'm so glad because I like all our Christmas decorations! Here's a little virtual tour:

These are the stuffed animals - I had to put them all together this year in a room away from the dog because we discovered that the dog LOVES to pull the ears off of stuffed toys. I especially love the Rudolph and penguin.

These three are of the windows in my kitchen right by the sink. I stand at these windows a lot to look out back at Utah Lake (and do dishes), so I put all my favorite little knick knacks there. Favorites here are the sock snowman, "Teach the Children" poem and sack, picture of Mary and Jesus, wood manger scene, and little plaid Santa sack (which I have had for like 18 years).

Christmas trees - I love them! We have them in every room, including the girls bedrooms.

This is the tree in front of our house. Last year, we had Josh and Kellie climb up and put lights all in it. This year, I found gigantic ornaments to hang on it.

Kitchen Christmas tree - I use little lightbulb necklaces for the lights and the ornaments are new this year: snowmen and reindeer.

Our "Jesus tree" - the first year that Katie was in our home (2001) I got all the pictures of the Savior that I could find and we decorated them with paper and glitter and then hung them on the tree along with a "gift" of an act of service we would perform for Jesus' birthday.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care - I bought all the stockings and cross stitched everyone's name on them as each child arrived. The hangers are a new things for this year. I've always wanted them!

Our main tree. When David's grandpa was alive, he would send us money every year for Christmas. About 5 years into our marriage, we used the money to buy this tree. Every year when we put it up, we think of him and his kind, generous love for us. The ornaments are pictures of my children - my mom learned how to create them when we were kids and she helped us learn. My sister made some of these for me as a gift one year, and I have added some since then.

Elves! My sister-in-law made these cute elves each year and sold them at Christmastime. One year, she gave us a personalized one for each member of our family. This year, they're sitting on this shelf in the kitchen/dining - I usually pose them funny, this year Josh is lying down :)

Door hanger - I've had this for years and I just think it's cute.

Nativity - my mom got this for us many years ago when she decided she wanted all her children to have a nativity. It's still in pretty good shape except for the baby Jesus who has been held and dropped too many times by loving children.

One more tree to come: this year we're getting a live tree for our TV room, partly because we have so many ornaments and partly because we just think it'll be fun!