Holiday Tranquility

Do you ever feel the tranquility of Christmas? I'd say most believe this word combination to be an oxymoron... but this year I may just have discovered it's essence. It's in the moments before the house wakes up in the morning; those first moments the tree is lit, Amado is purring (happy he's just been fed and I'm awake to play with him), and the house is otherwise silent. Glimpsing through the curtains I can see the soft snow that's fallen overnight, and I feel the chill of the morning. Staring at the twinkle of our tree, smelling the hint of soft pine and cookies, It's magical... it's Christmas.

As many of you have read on twitter, we've had quite the active Holiday Season at my house this year... from the decorating and lights, to cookie making, and you saw the gingerbread house. A few of the shots from the week. Amidst the Chaos, I hope you're also stopping to enjoy your Christmas season.


Amado's form of holiday helping. The ribbon tantilizes him everyday, and the glitter on these pointsettas is just too much... it's a miracle the ribbon is still on the tree and strung throughout the house.
The tranquil (and somewhat tipping Christmas tree, it's really the star that makes the whole tree look like it's tipping).. it's my first tree, and took a lot of effort to get, get the necessary tree items, and was a lot of fun to decorate with Natalie.

We had a night of cookie making this week. We dont have any cookie cutters of course, so we got creative... first we decorated a whole bunch of circles... (we call them our ornament cut-outs)... And then we got fancy, rolling the dough into holiday shapes.

Our friends Kirsten and Amber even stopped by to help with the decorating (along with Binh, Lizzie and all the roommmates, the cookie decorating was a fun and successful night.

Happy Holidays!