We are loving the Christmas season with Zoey this year. Three years old comes with such wonder and excitement for Christmastime. I truly love this age (90% of the time)! Once Christmas morning comes and goes, I’ll do a “gift haul” on here to show you what we got her and where you can get them if you’re interested. Some of them come with funny stories and some gifts I admit are because I want to play with them, too, haha. Being that she is three years old, she doesn’t really ask for specific things yet. If you ask her what she wants for Christmas, she just says “toys and candy canes.” I asked her if she wanted specific toys and she said, “no, just toys and candy canes.” Okay then, easy enough. I got to make the decisions on the toys within a modest budget and had a blast shopping for her. 
Here are a couple highlights from our family recently:
Our Christmas tree. This artificial tree was new to us last year and we absolutely love it. It is pre-lit, but this year we added a few small strands of colored lights that blink, just to give it some twinkle for Zoey. I am usually a white light person, but the little bit of color has been a really nice touch this year. It’s covered in ornaments from my childhood, commemorative ones from my pregnancy and several homemade from Zoey.
Making gingerbread houses. Notice Zoey ate more than helped. The assortment of M&Ms on the roof were her idea though. ;)
It is our family tradition to go to Opryland Hotel every Christmas to see the lights. They really dress that place up! It was crazy busy this year though, so our picture wasn’t in our normal spot. We settled for the bridge instead.
This is Zoey’s Aunt Misty. She is a missionary through Youth With A Mission so she is often in other parts of the world. We are taking full advantage of enjoying this Christmas season with her while we can!
Just another spot inside the hotel. So beautiful! Zoey was in love with all the twinkling lights. Thank goodness it was nice and warm inside. If you’ve never been to Opryland Hotel, it’s truly an amazing place to visit year-round. We’ve go every Christmas, but we’ve also been in the summer. It’s a very serene place to visit, full of gardens, restaurants, gift shops and cozy little benches for just sitting and enjoying a cup of coffee.
That’s all I have for now! I love Christmas!! I love shopping for others – it isn’t about the receiving for me. I love shopping and giving to others. This year, we only bought for our little immediate family and my niece, Emilee. We also each picked one friend to buy a gift for. Grandparents are all getting Zoey’s latest school picture framed, but that’s about it. Everyone else gets Christmas cards. To me, Christmas time is more about quality time with others. We both have way too many family members and we didn’t draw names this year (although I really wish we would have), so Christmas is within reason and not stressful at all. After all, if Christmas is stressful, we lose the true meaning of the real gift of this holiday: Jesus Christ.
Source:
http://jessiwallace.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas/
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