A little bit of Christmas

Christmas is almost here and I am so excited!!  Christmas truly gets better every year.  I love starting new and keeping old traditions with my growing family.  I love that Brent is getting to the age where I feel like I can really teach him about the true meaning of Christmas.  Here is a little bit of Christmas that has been going on in the Cutrell home...

 The Christmas train is a BIG hit around here.  It's the whole reason Brent rushes to put the Christmas tree up.

This is year 2 of collecting my Willow Tree Nativity Scene.  I get to add to it every year for my Christmas from Brandon.  This year I added the wismen.  I just love this Nativity set.  It is so simple, peaceful, and beautiful. 

I think as part of my "nesting" this pregnancy I am crafting a lot.  I enjoy a good craft but not nearly as many as I have taken on in the last 6 months.  I made these red burlap wreaths for my front door.  I look forward to reusing them for other occasions besides Christmas.  Red is such a good, versatile color.  I'm thinking of turning them into NC State Wreaths at some point ;) 

This is our 2nd year having "Elfie" in our home around Christmas.  Brent has lots and lots of questions about this guy.  Every morning when we find him Owen points, laughs and says, "There's Elfie. He's silly" in the cutest little 2 year old voice.  LOVE IT! 

 We are repeating our 24 books of Christmas again this year.  Each morning the boys unwrap a new Christmas book and we read it.  Over and over again. :)

 We visited Santa at the mall this year.  Brent has asked for a real shooting gun, a real motorcyle, and a my little pony.  Odd combination if you ask me.  I've had to help him with his list a bit.  Owen cared nothing for Santa. He just wanted a candy cane.

This is our kid-friendly "Little People" Nativity set.  I used this for our first Family Home Evening Lesson about Christmas after Thanksgiving.  Brent was so into the story and asked me to tell it to him again the next day.  The day after that he used the characters to tell me the story.  Warmed my heart to hear him telling the story of Jesus' birth.  This is how he likes to set the scene up.  He says that everyone wants to look at baby Jesus.  I think he gets it.

8 MORE DAYS!!!