22 days, 536 hours ...

... until Christmas day.

Or that is what Santa's Official Countdown says ;). Can you believe it? It's December 1st!! Phew, in some ways I feel like saying, "finally" ... I mean it's felt (no pun intended) like December for at least a week now. And then in other ways I feel like saying, "stop, hold everything" ... this is all going too fast and I know the next three weeks will go so quickly, so I'm going to try and blog a little everyday to help me capture it all so I can savor it in the months to come.

As you can see, the advent garland is up ... not quite complete, but up and we're counting down. I kept telling Ethan it was a surprise project, so getting it all up and seeing his excitement was pretty sweet. It was pretty easy to do, let me know if you'd like more information and I'd be happy to post a "tutorial" of sorts ;).
One of my favorite decorations is my nativity scene. I look forward to getting it out every year and I love the daily reminder of the reason for Christmas. I love moving baby Jesus from Mary's lap to his bed from time to time (can't you just see me, playing with the nativity). This year Ethan helped me get out each part and set it up, but was quite disappointed that I wouldn't let him touch it after that. So when I saw this nativity set in the Family Bookstore flyer, I knew it would be a perfect for Ethan. We picked it up today and I think that it is a great new tradition, giving Ethan a little gift on December 1st to start off the month leading up to Christmas.

So cute ... Laura Carrot sings "O little town of Bethlehem" when you push the star.

I hope your day put you in a good spirit for starting off this wonderful month. Tomorrow is more festivities, so I'm going to miss the Extreme Home Makeover (Stockdale Family) that I helped on this summer. I highly doubt you'll see me, Bethany, or Kelly, but you can watch anyway and know that I was there and Ty did sign my shirt!

Happy Saturday!!