Christmas Decorations

 I love Christmas time and decorating my house. If I had my way I would put up my decorations right after Halloween but I kinda like our tradition of popping champagne and decorating on black friday too. I always keep my decorations up as well to epiphany to remind me Christmas is not just about Santa but needs to be based in Christ and by doing this every year I am reminded of what the true meaning of the season is. Here are some of my favorite decorations:

I love my tree! Funny enough we actually now have enough ornaments to get a second tree. I am hoping to get a 9 footer for our huge front room and move our current tree downstairs. Part of the reason I have so many gorgeous ornaments is from my ballerina ornament collection started as a little girl. It was a wonderful gift my Mother gave me when I got my own home to already have such an extensive ornament collection. I decided to do the same for Kinsale and got her a gorgeous angel ornament to start her collection! I did finally get a tree skirt this year, In the past I actually just used a long piece of fabric and wrapped around the tree. I love this white, sparkly tree skirt. Christmas and New Years always mean sparkles to me!

Love this wreath, the picture doesn't do it justice they are candy apple red and will be gorgeous around valentines day too.

This is my long table in the front room, it has my nutcrackers, my Scandinavian tree and vintage decorations from my Grandma Johnson. The nativity is very old and the toy soldier carousel is from her too and is sweet!

I always put my candles on the center of my dining table .I decided this year they look a little lonely, I took a note from my lovely mother in law Kathy and added some angels. Kneaders had these pretty angels and some garland made them very festive.

Here is the my cookbook holder in my kitchen, I have our advent candles (which are burnt down pretty far) our Santas including our skiing Santa from Gramma Barb and also the Polar Express Train which I think is one of Quinn's new favorite decorations.

Here is our fireplace and mantle. These stockings are my very favorite decoration. They are a labor of love and usually take almost six months to complete each one. The white ones are the ladies and the red are the boys, snowflake for us and trees for the kids. I also love the village which is extra special because all the pieces have been gifts, I haven't bought any of them myself.

This is a side table in the middle of all of Quinn and Kinsale's toys. It has a special frame and photo book from their traditional polar express date with Uncle Tommy and Aunty Brandy and also two different nativities they can both play with. One of my favorite decorations as a little girl was my Mothers Nativity, cannot tell you the hours we played re arranging the figures.

Christmas cards always make my heart happy and full. Seeing my friends start their own families or even our parents friends become grandparents makes my heart sing. I actually have more then what fit on this fridge but what is here always is lovely to see each day!

Christmas is special and I love sharing these decorations fro our home!

Love

The Whites

Joy to the World!

I feel like I am on cloud nine with the wonderful weekend I just had. My lovely Mother flew into Utah and we got to see Laura Osnes and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was so special, the Motab choir does not sell tickets and I missed the raffle back in October. I was devastated when I found out it was Laura Osnes singing. I went to high school with her, both my Mom and I had followed her amazing career since. She has been in NY starring in Cinderella on Broadway among other shows. It was pretty amazing when one year on the Thanksgiving parade (one of my personal traditions after the 5k) I watched my friend Heather (a Rockette) and Laura both perform at the parade. That is about as close as I will ever get to Broadway and it was so cool!
I scrambled to try and secure tickets and low and behold my husband's awesomely cool college professor from St. Thomas came to the rescue. I was pretty shocked when one of my husbands college professors messaged me saying she might be able to get in touch with Laura and help us secure tickets. Most teachers who remember my husband remember him for all the wrong reasons! When I finally had the tickets in hand I almost got teared up because I knew how special this would be.
It was incredible! My mom flew to town and we had one of the best nights ever. We had dinner at my favorite restaurant the Copper Onion, we did a little shopping at City Creek and then walked through Temple Square to see the lights and finally ended up in our seats through a VIP door which was awesome. Laura was radiant and absolutely wonderful. I predict she will headline many more Broadway shows and secure a Tony very soon.  I had a moment during the concert where I felt like I needed to be pinched because it wasn't real. The rest of the weekend as well was so much fun, the kids loved spending time with their Gaga and just enjoying her company. We were spoiled!
The week only gets better as well, Tom and Kathy are en route to us in Utah to celebrate Christmas here. We are trying to continue a tradition of one Christmas in MN and the next year Utah. I miss MN but am looking forward to also continuing/creating some of our own traditions here.

My next post will probably be in 2016. 2015 has been wonderful, our sweet, Kinsale joined us and this year has been the year of "I think I can". I can't tell you how many times I (similar to Thomas the Train) have had to chant that mantra to myself. Whether it has been adjusting to two kids as a working Mama or adjusting to a whole new career it has been the 21015 mantra. Life is good and oh so sweet!

Love
The Whites

Mama and I on our special night

Mama helped me getting my sewing machine working and how to sew

Quinn loves Gilles and Gilles loves Quinn

Gaga B doing night time story with babies