Countdown to Christmas..... 4 days left!

That's right. The advent calendar doesn't lie. Christmas is in 4 days! Drew and I are ready to travel to the Midwest and visit with our families. The cookies are all ready to go (well almost all ready) and we are all done with our Christmas shopping. YEAH!!!

I guess here in Seattle, we will have a white Christmas. These are 2 pictures we just took from our apartment. And yes... these are actual pictures. "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"

Countdown to Christmas..... 21 days!

As tradition, Drew and I put out our Christmas decorations. We have decorated our apartment the same way but with a few minor changes. Usually I start decorating the mantle with our stockings and hangings while Drew starts on our tree, but we always save 2 things for last....

1) The Hawkeye helmet as our tree topper. This helmet has been Drew's topper for over 10 years (don't have an exact number), but we have stuck with tradition and kept the helmet. Doug is really jealous as he still doesn't have a helmet for his tree. Sorry... no sharing on this one.

Here is a picture of the tree. If you notice our tree skirt, it's homemade using a Bucilla kit. Many of our decorations are homemade using these Bucilla kits. I highly recommend them.

2) The advent calendar. I know what you are all thinking.... chocolate, but our advent calendar is a very unique calendar. Cindy, Drew's mom, made this calendar many years ago and each day an ornament is taken out of it's pocket to decorate the tree. When Drew and Doug moved out of the house, Cindy split up the advent calendar to each son. Doug ended up with the original ornaments and Cindy made Doug a new calendar while Drew got the original calendar and I made new set of ornaments. Attached is a picture of the calendar. (4 ornaments are up... the countdown has begun!)

Here are more decorations that I made using more kits.The first one was made this after Drew and I were married and the stockings were made in 2004.

21 days left!!!!