Thankful Thursday ✽ Christmas Time is Here

We decorate our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving.... but then we decorate our Snowflake tree after the rest of the house has been switched over to Christmas decorations afterwards.

Emmi decided she was more fun to decorate than the tree was ;).

It was Noah's turn to put the "little tree" topper on! Love it...

He clapped for himself with us!

After you've had a busy day having Christmas with extended family and walking around the zoo to look at lights, and you come home exhausted and hangry even though your Grandma kept you supplied with fruit snacks, and even getting in your comfy pjs and eating a slice of cheese can't help... laying on the hard kitchen floor and eating chocolate while sipping your beloved milk is the perfect way to relax if you are a Noah. And holding hands. That helps too <3. Sweetie!

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Happy, Merry Christmas time, y'all! It may still be November... but just barely. We celebrated Christmas with extended family this week, plan on decorating our room tomorrow, and it's the last Thursday before December... so, this post will be my Thankful Thursday Christmas addition ;). Can you believe that Christmas is in 25 days? I had planned to get waaaaay into Christmas prep this week, because I don't want to be rushing at the last minute again... but I'm also trying to get caught up on EVERYthing else, because I know I won't have time to do so while I'm doing all these Christmas activities, and don't want to worry about them. So that didn't work out very well... ha. I have 3 orders from my shop to make this week, and December was my shop's best month last year, so I'm determined to stay on top of things, this year! I've mostly finished planning and have set goals... now just to stick to them ;).

(After having said that... I got distracted looking up the Christmas crafts I want to make with the girls tomorrow. I made a list so I wouldn't forget. After that, I started remembering where I had decided that I needed to put some of the things. Then I realized I needed to think about how I could fit some stuff on our desk. I re-arranged said desk, then went through the books on my wall shelf. Now I have a stack of things to put away sitting on my bed, and am no further in my day's blog post. I'm really good at sticking to goals. *will finish blog post now* ... hmmm, lunch...)

Through this week and looking forward to the coming weeks, I am thankful for...

Time spent with family - Enjoying my cousin James' first Christmas time with him - The fact that come next year he will have a little BROTHER joining us!!! - Christmas lights - How much Joey has gotten into Christmas... I love that little guy <3 - Hot cocoa in the early morning as I read my bible, or during quiet time as I spend some time with my siblings - Christmas stories and books - Christmas cookies - Dark chocolate, because Christmas time does not feel like it's really here yet until you have had a dark chocolate kiss... dark chocolate is my favorite, but it's still 3 times better at Christmas somehow - Christmas songs - Getting to finally put together Christmas graphics for a ministry I do volunteer social media content creating for - An impromptu grilled cheese sandwich and chips after browsing shops and picking up my glasses with Mama - The cute boots Mama bought me yesterday <3 - Browsing through books together - Clearance finds - Reds and sparkles and cute typography - Catching up with people I haven't talked to much over the summer - The sweet lady who first taught me to create with my hands through her gift of knitting lessons. I find myself grateful to her every Christmas! That knitting led to crocheting... led to tatting... led to loving to create in any way possible, and now I can sew, transfer lettering, and quill (which I am strongly considering bring to my shop for "real"... would anyone be interested?) - To-do lists and goals... and the reminder that even if I don't get it done when I'd LIKE to, doesn't mean that I can't get it done by when I NEED to - Sitting down to a good book just because it's Christmas and I want to make a little more time to stop rushing through things that can wait if it has to (::cough, cough:: continual Etsy reconstruction... whyyyyyy. They've changed the system again, according to the people in my teams and groups...) - Noah's little hand waving and voice asking me to "come on!" - All my notebooks and pens and pencils, bibles and books available around me - Traditions and "just for fun" activities - Little one's excitement at getting to do something they have looked forward to - The kindness of the stranger at the zoo, who, though he had already cleaned the koala exhibit and was locking up, let us take a peak inside because he heard that some of us had hoped we'd make it in time to see them. And they were AWAKE AGAIN. I think the zoo changed their diet this year, because I've never know koala bears to be this active ;)!

What are some of the things you have been thankful for this month? What Christmas activities are you working on this week? Has someone done a kind act for you lately :)?

Rejoicing in Hope,
Bri