"It's The Most Wonderful Time....of the year!"

Or is it???  As much as I love this time of year, I really don't love shopping this time of year!  The shopping began Black Friday.  We LOVE Black Friday shopping at 4am, but it'll wear you out that's for sure.   From there I decided to shop online for most of the rest needed.  Shopping online is a much better idea, let me tell you!  I tried to get out and about to finish a final few gifts at a few stores and it was NUTS!  Not only are there zero parking spots, but people are just crazy everywhere.  The lines are long, the stores are a mess, and it just doesn't seem like "the most wonderful time of the year."  I will remind myself to start super early next year and also take advantage of online shopping.  You might think paying the shipping cost is a waste, but I say not.  Shopping online is my new favorite friend :)

The topic of discussion last weekend was "to tree or not to tree?"  We thought our floors would be installed a few days ago (and what a mess that is going to be), but turns out it will be the 28th.  I just couldn't bare NOT putting up a tree for C's first Christmas so I made the journey to Wally World and purchased a 6 1/2 foot prelit tree, added some multi-colored lights and a few ornaments and "ta-da" it is now Christmas in The Roden home :)  So glad I did!  Let me note that there are TWO trees (much bigger) up in the attic right now but I am too freaked out over spiders these days to get up there and hunt for all the xmas stuff so I opted to just buy new. 

Once the tree was up we took Charli for her visit to see Santa.  We tried two different Santas and she just wasn't gonna be happy with either.  I am not sure if it is the bright red suit, the long white beard, or just the stranger part of it but she wasn't buying it.  We'll just try again next year :)  I hear the Santa in Allen and the one in Northpark are just amazing!  Maybe we'll try there!

    

Backtracking a bit....another fav of this month was getting to go to the Adolphus parade.  It was a blast and Charli LOVED all the floats, characters, and bands that played.  It was freezing, but so fun!  It was the perfect way to start the holiday season! 

                                                                           

One thing is for sure, I truly do love the holidays.  I love being out of school and able to spend time with my sweet baby girl and jolly good husband.  I also look forward to visiting with our families and making memories with them.  The time is really just flying by ya know.  It seems like just a short while ago I was getting ready to have Charli and now we can't imagine life without her!  Darren and I feel so fortunate to have her and such wonderful people in our lives.  Merry Christmas!