Hey all,

I’m honestly not sure many people read my blog, but if you are here I am so glad! I thought I’d take a few minutes today and post about the lead up to Christmas this year. It certainly is different than in the past, but some things are always the same!

We are usually very busy in December. This year, there is only one trip down to the twin cities to celebrate Christmas. We are celebrating with Andrew’s family virtually tonight, which is the start of our Christmas celebrations this year—but not the start of our Christmas season! In fact, we started decorating a bit early this year. Each year, we put up a variety of decorations, and all of them feel special to us. We have 4 artificial trees that go up, one each in the family room, the living room, our bedroom, and the basement. Once we are lucky enough to add to our family by getting an adoption placement, we will add our 5th tree in baby’s room! We also have an advent calendar for Goldy, a wine advent calendar (from Costco) for us, and my personal favorite (and this year’s new addition) a Beary Merry Christmas advent calendar. My parents had this advent calendar and my sister and I used to rush to be the one who got to move the bear through the house while he is looking for Christmas. The picture below isn’t great, and it isn’t where it lives in our house, but it is what I sent to my best friend after I finished assembling it this year. In the past, these have been IMPOSSIBLE to find, so I’m thrilled to have found one at an affordable price this year (thanks Poshmark).

Other decorations we have out include wall hangings, Steelers Santa, those cute seasonal birds from target, and multiple nativity scenes. Three of our nativity sets are actually very special to me, as they come from Israel. One my parents gave me when I was in law school that they had for a long time prior to passing it to me. The other two I bought when I was lucky enough to be able to visit Israel with a law school class. We also have an angel, books, a banner that says ‘ho ho ho’ and some white woodland animals. Of course, we never forget to hang our stockings either!

I also love decorating outside in the yard. This year, we have two light up snowmen and Snoopy sleeping on a decorated ‘mail box’ that opens to show a sleeping Woodstock. We also have super large and bright Christmas bulbs lining the sidewalk approaching our house. Most importantly in my opinion, we have Santa checking his list! Again, Santa is a throw back to my childhood. When we moved to the Brainerd lakes area, we found one exactly like the one my parents have and Andrew, being the great husband that he is, insisted we buy it once he saw the smile it brought to my face.

There are many Christmas traditions that we are doing different this year or had to skip, but we are still celebrating in full force in our home. I’ll post more about Christmas celebrations soon!

~Natalie