It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

When Chris told me it was going to snow on Saturday, I merely scoffed. Having grown up in New Jersey, I remember all those times we children were promised snow...which never happened. Or, if precipitation did happen, it would be freezing rain or sleet (which are awful and not nearly as exciting as snow).
Imagine my honest surprise when snow began to gently coat everything in sight on Saturday morning, shortly after we woke up. It was beautiful! I was glad to see snow because it is now December and I can always handle snow in December. *Unlike Utah, where some seasons, Mt. Timp would be covered with snow on LABOR DAY! That's SEPTEMBER, people! My inner New Jersey couldn't handle the sight of such early appearances of snow.
We took advantage of being inside our warm house to do some Christmas decorating. Last year, we didn't put up anything because I was too tired and too pregnant to care about decorations. Now that Liz is here and is interested in all things that light up and sparkle, it was off to decorating!
We have a cute 4' tree, which is PERFECT because we put it on Grandpop's table and it's (mostly) out of reach for Liz, so she can't pull everything off the tree.

It has blue and white lights, and I fondly call it our sports tree because nearly all the ornaments on it are football-related (soccer and basketball are runners-up).

Why are many of our ornaments football-themed, christened with the Broncos logo? Well, every year since he was born, Chris received an ornament from his parents. Each ornament has his name on it and the year it was given to him (funny to think some of his ornaments are older than I am!). Valerie saved all of these in a box and gave it to Chris when we got married. So now we can continue the tradition on our own Christmas tree. And it's such a good idea, we are going to do it for Liz! She already has two ornaments on the tree!

We looked around for a cute angel or a pretty star to place at the top of our tree, but I tell you what--everything was came across was cheap-looking or just downright ugly. So, we placed a silver bow on the top which we love.

Here is the K for the Killion tree, which we bought our first Christmas together.


Chris's parents sent him a mini tree for the Christmases he spent on his mission, and it's still in perfect condition. We've made it our dining room table centerpiece for the month of December!

The first present under the tree belongs to Chris! Hmm, I wonder what Santa brought him? :)

My mom has given me a wooden Santa Claus and a collection of wooden sprigs with holly which are decorating our doorway. I'll have to get a picture of that. Chris bought me a wreath and bows, so I took the bows and tied them to the wreath and it looks pretty cute! Thank goodness it was easy to do!

Oh yes, here is our mantle, with our stockings:

Liz is the snowman stocking.

Mom is the Santa stocking.

And Dad is, of course, the Broncos bear stocking, complete with helmet and football. I laughed when I saw this stocking for the first time, because it is CHRIS to a tee!


Later that night was the ward Christmas party. We had a really good time! We sat with the Heit's and the Turman's and proclaimed our table "The BYU Table" since all of us adults graduated from the Y. There was dinner (HAM!!) and a Christmas program with musical numbers from members of the ward. We are very glad the snow didn't stop the celebrations because it was so much fun!

The snow is melting as I type because the sun is shining. We shall see what it looks like outside in a few hours! Have a great week!