Merry Christmas!

To say it’s going to be a merry Christmas at the Dream would be true. Very true.

We’ve got one cutie pie celebrating Christmas #1 and one precious boy who will certainly be completely overwhelmed and probably break down multiple times, which we will inevitably find adorable. Or maybe not. We’ll see. Anyway, it will be awesome.

Before the celebrating begins… here’s a quick look at how we’ve decorated the joint.

First up… the stockings. These are a tradition from Jason’s side. His grandmother knit them for his family, and Jason’s mom had one blank one left – that I had the privilege of receiving when we got married. Then, his mom found the pattern and knit matching stockings for our munchkins…

 We don’t have a fireplace and therefore don’t have a mantle. So, this year, these are on prominent display in our living room – on the wall that greets you as you enter our home. They are “framed” in a borrowed decoration from our neighbor. It turns out, we live next door to a popular, local photographer who is constantly building new backdrops in his driveway. I walked by and saw these frames leaning against his house. It gave me this idea… so, he’s letting me borrow them for the Christmas season and if this idea takes off, he says he’ll sell you one for $50. 🙂 Great deal! I nabbed two (again, for free, because he’s a nice neighbor and is letting me borrow them). Here’s what we’re doing with the other one…

I took this picture with the first wave of Christmas cards – it is jam packed now with gorgeous smiling faces – I.LOVE.IT. This is right next to the stockings…

That tree back there in the family room… that’s tree #2.

Last year, we did one tree in the living room and my Type A tendencies took over. I made it all matchy-matchy coordinated – red bows, white lights and silver balls. No hodge-podge ornaments that I thought I didn’t like. Turns out, I like them. So, the family room gets the family tree – complete with hodge-podge mismatched ornaments. It’s awesome. It’s also constantly all over the floor thanks to a very cute 18 month old. He’s also completely obsessed with the “LLLLLLLights!” Every morning, he immediately demands that we turn on the “LLLLLLLights!”

We still have the Type-A tree in the living room. I haven’t bothered getting a proper picture… but you can see it here…

My good friend, Sarah (in the green t-shirt) is an ahhh-mazing singer. As she pursues her opera career, she’s also doing Kindermusik on the side. So, she gave a class to some of our friends recently. We moved most of the furniture out of the living room to accommodate the fun. Kenton loved running around in the empty space for the couple of days it took us to put everything back together.

Speaking of no proper pictures… I also didn’t get a great shot of the gallery wall, but I did swap out some of the pieces there for some Christmas-themed hangings…

Yeah, so you can’t really see that. It’s okay – it will be better next year. I also planned to swap out some of the photos for Christmas shots. I got as far as saving the images I wanted to use in a folder on my desktop. The plan being to upload them and have them printed – but I never got that far. Whoopsies. There’s always next year. (Thanks, Mayans, for getting that one wrong.)

Finally, here is our family Christmas card this year…

We kept things very simple – as that is ALL.MOMMA.CAN.HANDLE at the moment.

The photos were snapped by Jen Radack with O’Grace Photography. She was our wedding photographer and we love her lots. Lots and lots, actually.

This card – and Camille’s birth announcement – were designed by our good friend, Danielle Larcom. Danielle and I were reporters together in Maine and she’ll be designing our cards forever because she knocks it out of the park every time. She also did Kenton’s first birthday party invites. If you’d like to have her design your card, let me know and I’ll get you in touch.

So, that wraps up all the photos I have to share of our Christmas prep. I’ll be back in a few days with a recap of how everything goes down. We’re having everyone over here Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Kenton and Camille are still the only grandkiddos on both sides (and they’ll always be on my side, I’m an only child)… and we are honored to celebrate with all four of their grandparents AND my grandfather, who is visiting from California. It will be a wonderful and memorable holiday for us – as we hope it is for you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

About Michelle Fortin

Michelle Fortin is a follower of Jesus, a wife and a mom. She's also an award winning broadcast journalist and public relations professional. Michelle spent nearly a decade working in television newsrooms across the country, both behind and in front of the camera. Training future broadcast journalists in her faculty associate roles at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and at Arizona Christian University was a cherished focus of her post-TV career. Today, she maintains a roster of public relations clients focused on empowering fellow “momprenuers.” She also serves as a speaker for various women's and mom's events. Michelle received her bachelor’s degree from Biola University and Master of Mass Communication (MMC) from Arizona State University. She and her husband, two young kids and English bulldog call Scottsdale, Arizona, home.

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