I love decorating our house for every season, but I especially love decorating it for Christmas! And a big part of that is because of our ornaments. Decorating our tree has become a fun walk down memory lane for us each year. (that's right--I said "us"--Ben even participates in this!) Here's how we do it...
We pick out a tree (we're real tree kind of people). And p.s., I want to find a place around here where we can actually go cut down our own tree and not pay a fortune for it. Maybe we should just start cutting one down at my Mom's and bringing it back home from Thanksgiving. Hmmm. I digress.
So we get the tree home, get it in the stand, and get it watered. The white lights go on the tree first--and we load them on there--the more lights, the better. Then, the fun begins! Ben unwraps each ornament and as he's handing it to me to put on the tree, we talk about where it came from, who gave it to us, what the story is behind it, etc. (I label them with the year and the "story" when I get them so we don't forget.) Almost every ornament on our tree has a story. I love that!
This is the final product...
Here are some other Christmas-y pictures from our home...
The stockings over the fireplace (it's so exciting to think that there will be another stocking up there next year! and a sweet friend has already given us a new set of stocking holders for our family of 3--plus the dogs, of course!)
Since the big tree is in our front room, I like to put a baby tree in our family room (these ornaments don't have a story, other than they are all tiny and I "stole" them from my mom!)
I even spread some Christmas cheer to the dog kennels!
This is one of my favorite things--all of our cards from friends and family! We LOVE getting cards with photos and updates! Can you spot yours? 
And one last favorite thing--the lights that Ben puts up on the outside of our house! I didn't think he would have time to do it this year because he's been working a lot of overtime (he's an amazing husband who works hard for our family!). But he surprised me one day and put them up while I was at work and I thought he was sleeping from coming off a 48-hour shift. Our neighbors have commented each year on how much they love our star. I love it, too!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Love, Team Huss
We just got our December numbers via email! We tried to prepare our hearts for whatever movement (or non-movement) we would see, but we were still kind of bummed...
#22 on the girl list (moved 4 spots since 11/4/2010)
#14 on the boy list (no movement since 11/4/2010)
#14 on the sibling list (moved 5 spots since 11/4/2010)
Yes, you read that right--we moved the most spots on the sibling list, which makes our numbers the same for boy or sibling. And remember, in our instance, the siblings would both have to be between 3-12 months, which most likely means twins! Yow-za!
The reason for the mixed emotions is that we moved 9-10 spots from October to November, so it kind of took us by surprise to move ZERO spots on the boy list this month. But alas, we know that God has our perfect child (or children) for us, and we'll wait patiently (haha--yeah, right--not exactly patiently waiting over here!).
Christmas is celebrated in Ethiopia in January, so I don't know of any reasons that the referral process would slow down in December. But we'll see...
In the last few months, we've made some progress on the baby front...I guess most of it would be considered "nesting"...
Decided on the nursery design
(NOTE: The animal fabric will be the dust ruffle on the crib and the valance over the window)
(NOTE: This is a picture of the stickers we ordered--this isn't a picture of our room)
Bought a car seat
Were given a dresser/changing table
Bought a crib
Made the bathroom more "cute"
Registered at Babies R Us and Target
Got 3 immunizations in preparation for going to Ethiopia (ouch!)
We've still got a way to go, but it feels good to be making progress! We should have our December numbers soon, so stay tuned!
