Oh Christmas Tree

Tonight we watched The First Presidency Christmas Devotional in our living room. It was a wonderful way to get into the Christmas spirit. When it was finished, Mr. Stannix brought me down one of my Christmas presents to open early. He said it would add to our night setting up the tree. I opened it up and it was a Mindy Gledhill CD that has one of my newest favorite Christmas songs. As soon as we turned the music on Camilla was jumping and dancing around our living room as we set up the tree.

We were shortly joined by our friends who assisted in setting the tree up and stringing the lights. It was great to visit and share Christmas music together. Camilla was a great little helper and loved putting the decorations on the tree! It was fun to see her so into it this year.

Mr. Stannix grew up with his Christmas trees being covered head to toe in garland, and my tree growing up was always loaded with tinsel. In case you don't remember from last year, this tree is the tree that I grew up with. It's super old, and still loaded with tinsel from my childhood. The garland and the tinsel just add extra sparkle to our short little tree. Mr. Stannix and Camilla finished off the tree by putting our new star on top.

The added bonus to having friends over for the night is that we had someone to snap a family picture for us! Hyrum was tired and rubbing his eyes by this point, so he looks just so impressed to be in the picture.

After the decorating was complete, we shared in some dessert with our friends. It was a delicious black forest cake! We visited until late into the evening. It was wonderful. We feel so blessed to have such great friends. After we parted ways, and got the little miss to bed, Mr. Stannix and I dimmed the lights and snuggled on the couch to the glow of the Christmas tree. 

He turned into a giant chatter box, and I love when he gets that way. We sat and talked about where we are at, the goals that we have and what we look forward to about our future. Then we both decided a hot drink was necessary before bed. I made us up a cup of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and candy canes to enjoy. While I measured and stirred, Mr. Stannix stood in the doorway of the kitchen looking handsome and continuing to talk with me. We then went back to our cozy spots on the couch and shared in some more laughter together. I love this season. The lights, the smells. This is Christmas for me.