{Life}: Deck the Halls.

This month has been full of travel for Jake as he interviews for residency, so December felt a bit off. We didn't get our tree and decorations up when I wanted and once we did, it felt a bit rushed. We have been doing a tradition of listening to Christmas songs, eating appetizers, and drinking Starbucks (peppermint mocha for me!) to gear up for tree decorating, but this year we got the tree, waited a week because of interviews, and then rushed through decorating because I had a choir concert.

Nonetheless, I'm grateful for the time together and for a house to decorate. Here's our halls, decked.

Our tree sat naked for a week...

The guys liked it.

Down came the decorations..

Beamer got in on the fun:

Sebastian too.

Our countdown calendar, hanging by our bedroom. So fun to move the candy cane.

We made pizza bites (pizza dough, cubed cheese, pepperoni, and jalapeños, baked in the oven at 400) to eat while decorating. Delicious.

Decorated!

We caught Tyson looking for Santa...

I made this Merry Mail sign a few years ago. I since have made them with longer wood with more space between the tails - highly recommend that route. But I love our compilation of holiday cards from our friends and family.

So there are this year's decorations. For fun, here's 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009. Pretty funny to see the things we do each year and the ways our house has changed. Here's the living room our first Christmas in the house versus now:

In twinkling lights and stockings on the mantle,