A Tale of Christmas Past

As I pulled down the one measly bin of Christmas decorations we have from the attic today, I got to thinking about how we decorated the house for the holidays last year.  Since we were in the midst of planning what ended up being the most amazing trip EVER (more on that later), we didn't do very much decorating. We picked out and chopped down our first Christmas tree together, because I had never done it (we had an artificial tree growing up).  

So, when it came to decorating the tree, we wanted to keep everything simple (yet again), and cheap (that's how we roll). So I grabbed some pine cones from the yard (yet again), and added a bit of silver spray paint, a dab of hot glue, and a little red ribbon. 

Presto. Chango. Instant Christmas ornaments.

Add some classic red ball ornaments and the only other ornaments we owned at the time, a little Red and Black from our Alma Mater. Go Dawgs! 

We didn't have any theme planned when it came to decorating our first Christmas tree, but it just so happened that with the silver pine cones, red balls, white lights, and what turned out to be a lot of Georgia ornaments, we were officially sporting a UGA Christmas tree without even meaning to.  However, that was fine with us, since just a year earlier around the same time, we were in Athens graduating.  It brought back so many great memories we made at school.  The kind of memories you won't ever forget.

Yep, you saw our tree correct, and even though this was the night we put the tree up, the tree skirt stayed that bare until we took the tree down in January. No gifts were wrapped and placed under the tree last year. We had gifts in the making that couldn't be wrapped or put under our tree. Gifts in the form of wedding plans in far off big cities.           

You can see little Baxter in the picture with us.  We had just adopted him a few weeks prior to this picture.  He was so tiny, so sweet and thought that we brought the tree inside just for him.  Good thing he didn't weigh enough to do any real damage. 

Other than our decorated tree, a fresh wreath on the front door and some lit garland over the mantle, we didn't have any other decorations for our first Christmas together in our lil house. We really didn't need any of that to make the holiday special.  There were other events that followed later in the month that made the holiday season unforgettable for us.  

Thankful

As you probably already know, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year.  It was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, and I really enjoyed having our families at our house.

Not everyone could come down, but my parents, Alan's parents, and his sister's family were able to join us for the holiday and we are so thankful to be able to spend time with all of them.

I set a really simple table, with the easiest place card holder. Ever. 

I told you there would be more pine cones, and here they are.  I simply cut out a piece of card stock, and slipped it right into the top of the pine cone.

I found these striped, colorful napkins at Pier One for a few bucks each (they were my favorite, and I knew our smallest guest would like the bright colors), and then, picked up the solid orange and green napkins at Target.

I decided to mix up the colors since we rarely feed nine people on a regular basis. (This way we have a few different colors to add to the others we use throughout the year.)  

Our menu was posted

And little ones scurried around the house, and had fun drawing. 

The dessert table was packed full of pies, cake, and cookies.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

Mom's pumpkin pie

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

and finally, apple pie.

Instead of passing out from food comas like most people do after Thanksgiving dinner, we all headed downtown to partake in our town's Thanksgiving Day festivities.  

I love Christmas lights of any kind, anywhere.  But, our town has the most magical lights ever. 

Our downtown is a large square, with the old courthouse right in the middle.  Lights drape from the very tip of the courthouse, all the way down and across the streets that make up downtown.

I think it's simply beautiful, and have found, after two years, that pictures just don't do it justice.

For the entire month of December, I go out of my way to drive under the downtown lights. 

We hope your Thanksgiving was as magical as ours!