Christmas decorating done. Check.

December 1st. Wow! Now it is only 24 days until Christmas. And for the most part we are ready. 🙂

We got our tree.

Okay, so that is our Charlie Brown Christmas tree decoration. Here is our tree.

Isn’t it cute?! We went to the nursery and saw this one first. We saw some taller trees next to it that were still in the netting so you couldn’t tell what they really looked like. It didn’t take us long at all to decide that this one was it. No where near the size that we normally get. Our trees have almost always touched our various ceilings. But it is a live tree and Bob’s thought is that we don’t plant it in the ground. We may need to put it in a larger pot at some point but we can put it in the garden until next Christmas and then bring it back inside. I like that idea. Makes it part of the family.

It leans a little which makes me love it more. I nicknamed it I-lean. tee hee hee. I will tell you that it has the sharpest needles I have ever been poked by. Ouch! Not fun to decorate for that reason.

When we bought it I still had not opened the box of Christmas decorations that we brought with us so I really didn’t know whether the tree was large enough. Oh well. When I did finally start unpacking the ornaments I had concerns but I made it work. The ornaments that it displays are ornaments from my parent’s first Christmas, an Old German ornament that was my Grandmother’s, ornaments from my Grandmother to both my parents and to me, an ornament from my cousin Donna that she made (we think) in 1988, ornaments from my childhood, ornaments that my Mom made and other special ornaments from over the years. There isn’t an ornament on the tree that doesn’t mean something special to me.

I will say that I was impressed with how little I packed in that Christmas box. I guess I shouldn’t be because I somehow got our old 3-4 huge plastic bins stuffed with Christmas decorations down to one box.

The stockings are hung. Garland arranged. Lights strung. My family’s nativity set is displayed. As is tradition with me…there is something of Christmas in every room. Even if it is just one simple item.

This is one of my favorite decorations. A plate that I made in third grade. My spelling has improved since then. This is the plate we put cookies for Santa on.

We sent out our Christmas cards today. Woohoo!

We went into town to the Sitges Christmas Festival. Handmade crafts. It was more a fair for people who do crafts. Lots of things to buy to make your own crafts.

But it still added to the Christmas spirit.

The weather today also added to the Christmas spirit. We are having a cold spell as is much of Europe. It made for some great clouds at the beach.

We are now snuggled in front of the fire with a glass of cava to celebrate our 8 month anniversary of moving here.