It's the most wonderful time of the year!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving & I was very sad to be heading back to work this morning after five glorious days with my family.  Wednesday ended up being great; I spent the day with the kids, prepped for Thanksgiving, listened to Christmas music & enjoyed the quickly cooling breeze through the open sliders.

I was so surprised when my mom called & said that my sister would be joining them to spend the night (as well as my nieces).  As we all gathered around the table talking & drinking chocolate peppermint martinis, we wondered why my brother & SIL weren't coming after my brother got off work.  A quick text later & they decided they'd come too!

Documenting what we're thankful for!

After the kids played together until they crashed, the adults hung out on the patio chatting it up & having an impromptu dance party.  Chocolate peppermint martinis do that to you!

I was positively giddy when we woke up to 39 degree weather on Thanksgiving morning!!  It's not often that we get to feel cool weather in November, so I was thankful that it truly felt like the holidays.

Since we were in Asheville last Thanksgiving, this was our very first in our "new" house.  It was so awesome to actually have room for everyone to sleep & eat!  I was very thankful for that.

I caught this little stinker sneaking candy from the lingering Halloween stash right before dinner!

Friday was equally as awesome & spent buying & decorating our Christmas tree.  Yes, apparently my son enjoys decorating in his undies.  Hey, whatever floats his boat.

This was the first year that Cam was really into decorating the Christmas tree & he did such a great job!  We watched Elf as we decorated.

Unfortunately I woke up super early Sunday morning with some mega anxiety.  I didn't want to go back to work after having so much fun with the kids, I get anxiety on Sundays in general, I was sad the holiday was already over & with it being officially December, my to-do list was screaming at me.  Luckily I worked hard & got my annual Shutterfly picture calendars done, so that took some pressure off. 

 Mike's taking the day off with me Wednesday & hopefully we'll be getting the majority of our shopping done.  I'm trying to keep the month manageable so I can enjoy it instead of stressing.. sucks to be a worrier!

In keeping with the Dave Ramsey cash system we've been following, we're completely budgeted for Christmas which also takes a lot of stress off.  No more January dread with a massive credit card bill.  It is amazing though how much everything involved with Christmas quickly adds up.  I create one of the more reasonable Christmas cards from Shutterfly, but those + 60 postage stamps = $60 alone.  

We don't go insane buying gifts for our kids either since they have plenty of toys already & we certainly don't need more "stuff" taking up space in our house.  Christmas definitely doesn't have to mean going broke

And I have to admit, one of my favorite things about Christmas is having Fella our elf hanging around.  I love this little guy & so do my kids!  After my little bout of anxiety in the wee hours of Sunday morning, I've gotten it together so I can enjoy the holiday & not stress myself through it.  Happy December, Happy Christmas!