Monday, December 3, 2012

Stockings are hung...

Well, it's our first Christmas in Portland and I've spent the evening preparing the stockings, some presents, and getting ready for the tree decoration. We went and got a little tree that's going up in the office and I'm really excited for it to be decorated. I have a feeling I'll be using it as my primary source of light during those early morning work hours. ;-)
Here are the stockings. We don't have a mantle, so I hung them from the book shelf in the living room. All of the animals have a stocking (which will have some treats by Christmas), and ours already have a stocking stuffer apiece in them. It makes me really happy to have them up and have them with little presents in them. I plan on filling his up with a few more goodies (probably to eat) before it's all said and done. 

It's definitely going to be a quiet holiday for us. We don't currently have any plans, other to go look for Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. We may even just take a stroll through the neighborhood with the bear before snuggling in for the night. I'm not sure yet if we're going to cook anything, but I'm kind of hoping that we will so we have some leftovers to capitalize on. That was the one thing I missed about Thanksgiving; since we didn't cook, we didn't have any leftovers. We did volunteer, though, which was a really awesome experience. I don't know if they have any volunteer opportunities for Christmas, but depending on what we do, I may look into something for us to do. It's nice to be around people since we don't have family here, and there is something really special about donating time and helping others out. 



All that aside, I'm ready for the holiday season! I'm ready to have warm fuzzies, warm drinks, the surprise of gifts (I have a few tricks up my sleeve!) and the joy of just acknowledging and being thankful for all that this year has brought. It's been a doozie of a year, that's for sure! So much change and so much excitement. It'll be nice to have a chill holiday and spend it with my favorite person ever, my best friend.