Christmas Decorating & Christmas Card Fun!

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Mallory asked if we could get the tree out for Christmas and I had no reason to say no, so we started decorating! I was excited to get the Christmas decorations out and get the Christmas spirit going!

I love Mallory's face once Brian pulled one of the Christmas boxes out. She was ready! This is such a fun age and she is learning what Christmas is all about. She does request everything she sees for Christmas but it is so great to talk to her about Jesus and that we are celebrating his birthday. It's also great to talk about giving and how it is better to give than receive.

She opened the box as fast as she could and started going through it

I got the mantle completed pretty quickly. I love seeing our three stockings hanging on the mantle. Makes my heart so happy!

Our next item was the nativity scene. Mallory was so happy to set it up. She said she wanted to do it so I let her set it up herself. She would look at the box, get the correct person or animal and put it where it was supposed to go. It was such a great moment. I loved watching her work hard on getting it perfectly set up

Once the nativity scene was set up, it was time to put up the Christmas tree. Every year, Brian and I say we are going to get another tree but this little tree was the first one we bought for our first Christmas together as a married couple so it has so many sweet memories that we keep it. Maybe we will actually get another one at an after Christmas sale, but we will see!

Mallory always likes to help Brian get the tree ready

Brian working hard on fluffing the tree :)

We usually have a silver bow that goes on top of the tree but Mallory wanted to put the star topper we had on her little tree last year on top of this tree so we obliged. She kept waiting for the tree to be put up so Brian could lift her up and put it on the top of the tree. It's white so it's hard to see with the white blinds in the background but I don't care. It's perfect!

Then, it was time to the put the ornaments on. Mallory loved seeing all of her Disney ornaments again and was so happy to put them all on the tree

I kept thinking about what by friend Brettni wrote in this blog about the heavy side and ornaments on the tree. I left Mallory have free reign on where she put the ornaments and the right side of our tree looks like this and I love everything about it! She worked so hard to get these right where she wanted them. Just beautiful.

I hung up some ornaments up top and on the other side once she was done. Mallory kept walking up to the ornament where she could see her reflection in it and was laughing so hard every time. She would make some funny faces and then laugh so hard. She still does it every day. So funny!

One of my side tables has the nativity scene and the other has a Christmas plate from 2012 (I will always set it out because it was made by Mallory, Caleb and Cade) and Christmas cards! I was really looking forward to setting my old Christmas cards out. I don't accomplish many Pinterest projects but I wanted to do something with the Christmas cards we've received over the past years so I found a simple project I could do and finished it after Christmas last year. It's so fun to look at the past year's Christmas cards and I love seeing them as they come in the mail! 

Speaking of Christmas cards, my friend Brettni came up with a great idea to do a Christmas Card Blog Linkup Party! I'm joining Brettni, Lyndsey, and Joy to share our Christmas cards on December 15th! I hope you will join us! 

All in all, it was a wonderful evening, getting everything out and up. I know these are many memories that I will always remember. I love the Christmas season especially the Reason for the Season!