Its looking a LOT like Christmas at the house on Hamburg Lake

Well it is official-its christmas time in my little neck of the world!

This means: putting away the pumpkins-mixed feeling about that, I think I love fall decorations the best...

BUT I do love the traditions and memories that go along with going through the many many bins of Christmas stuff and literally putting the stuff  EVERYWHERE!

So let me give the tour AND explain some of my wonderful, special and NEW family traditions!

Christmas Tradition and Memory #1:

We have to start with my one and only Christmas-village-building from my dad....

My very own dental office, I am not sure if I can explain how special it is to me...maybe it is so special to me because my dad personalized for me!!!  Or maybe it is SO special to me because for as long as I can remember my sister and I have been buying my dad houses/shops/churches/people...for his Christmas gifts and EVERY YEAR he is so cute at taking over the top of the kitchen cabinets to proudly display his MANY MANY gifts with love and pride.

Christmas Tradition and Memory #2:

Since my sister and I were little we have had our very own special stocking that looked A LOT like these.  I loved our old Christmas stocking and the memories of the fruit, peanuts and fun little treasures they always held each Christmas.  I know these stocking were made for us by a family member and now that I am thinking about it I should make sure to get the entire story about who made them....but what I do know is that you can't find these ANYWHERE or at least that is what I thought until I found these wonderful stockings at Macy's after Christmas sale...I understand they are not the most beautiful, matchy-matchy stockings and therefore may not be as popular, but LUCKY for me I loved them and there were a bunch to choose from at 70% off!!!  Needless to say Lindsey felt the same sentiment I did for these stockings so I grabbed a few for her also.

Christmas Tradition and Memory #3:

For as long as I can remember my mom has been VERY crafty (I wonder where I get it from?!) in fact my mom was so crafty that she used to make her own Christmas decorations.  I have wonderful memories of her putting her decorations all over the house but my favorite was always this Santa Clause.  I don't know if it was his jolly look or his odd proportions but I just LOVED him sooo much.  Mom knew how I felt about the jolly little man and so she had duplicates cut out of wood, she sanded and painted and personalized one for both my sister and I and gave them to us last year.  I smile every time I see him in my living room because I know how much work went into making him for me AND because it reminds me of wonderful childhood memories.

I feel as though I have done well incorporating my most favorite and special memories from my childhood into my adult version of Christmas, however there is one tradition and area that I have been lacking---that is advent calenders....but that changes THIS YEAR!!!  

New Christmas Tradition and OLD memories:

Growing up Lindsey and I always had an advent calendar of sorts....some had stories, some had pretty pictures and some had chocolates (which our dog ginger always managed to get off of the wall and eat by the second day which cause Lindsey and I to cry).  I have tried to carry on this tradition but have fallen short, Cal and I don't really like the chocolates included in the generic advent calenders and ultimately we would forget about them.....but not this year!  This year I have taken it upon myself to start a new tradition, partially because I think it will be fun, partially because it is something I want to do with our children someday and partly because Cal and I are apart and it would be nice to have notes/treats from each other everyday.  

I already have this bottom one all filled up for Cal....hope he is as excited as I am about the idea! 

And finally a few pretty/crafty "moments" of the house tour:

(just wrapped ribbon around the candles but I really enjoy how they look)

My Christmas tree is in a CROCK, LOVE IT!

I also love old sleds, I can't wait to take my other two outside and decorate with them....I am holding off on the outside decorations until after Thanksgiving day...don't want to scare the neighbors!

Big thanks to Lindsey Faye for the new-old WINDOW, I had fun putting seasonal paper in there-she inspired this one!