It's Christmas Time, Pretty Baby...

but so far, we have seen no snow fallin' on the ground. Even without the snow, it is starting to feel a lot like Christmas. Charles and I went last weekend and painted our ornaments for 2009. We had a really good time painting them...

Charles decided to paint a gingerbread man but painted him more like a red velvet man so that he would show up better on our Christmas tree (thanks, Charles!! :) )...

I painted my usual snowmen, but this year they were decked out in their maroon and white and holding the Golden Egg...

We are still so proud of our Bulldogs!

They called to let us know that our ornaments were ready to pick up this weekend, and I think our ornaments turned out great this year!

We did get a little Christmas shopping for Toula taken care of, and we decided to give her the Christmas felt tag ball a little early...
She is really enjoying playing with it!

and chewing on it!

She had to take a little break from playing with the ball to watch some MSU men's basketball...
She along with the rest of the Willoughbys were glad to watch the win!

Today, I made hot chocolate mix and Mama's Christmas punch. As soon as I sampled the punch, the first words out of my mouth were: "It's now Christmas time, Charles!" The punch is just delicious! In addition to Christmas punch, we now also have an amaryllis as well as paper whites by the fireplace - they just smell so good!We also have a poinsettia for the entry way...

Christmas time is such a fun time to get together with friends. We had dinner with our good friends, Matt, Mary Ann, Nathan and Peyton this evening and had a wonderful time!

Nathan kept us all entertained throughout dinner!

He is just so smart and so cute!He decided he wanted to eat one of the lemon wedges, and his face after placing the wedge to this tongue was priceless! We asked him to repeat the process for this picture...Charles and I also had such a good time holding Peyton! She is such a good baby - so sweet and so cute!

We had a wonderful time with our friends!

After coming home, we started baking cookies for Charles's school's Christmas party. Now we're making a grocery list for snacks of our own to go along with our Christmas punch!

Go Mighty Tigers!

South Panola took on Oak Grove in the initial 6A Mississippi State Championship tonight.
SP played a great game and came out victorious!!
Not only did the Tigers win the first ever 6A championship, but they are the first school in state history to win 8 state championships! Way to go Tigers!!

The game was fun to watch - especially since it snowed practically all game long and by the end of the game, the field was white. It would have been so much fun to watch it in the snow, but since I am still a little under the weather, we decided to stay home and watch the game from our warm and comfy couch.

Decorating for Christmas...

The Saturday following Thanksgiving, Charles and I stuck with tradition and begun decorating the house for Christmas.
We veered from our tradition of starting with the Christmas tree, and instead began with the bow for our mailbox this year. Charles helped me attach it so that hopefully it won't blow away with gusts of wind...I love the sparkly mesh ribbon and was very happy with our mailbox bow...We then turned on our Christmas music (Perry Como, Elvis and Harry Conick, Jr.) and stared decorating the tree. We began with the lights...

Then I added ribbon to our tree this year...

then added the tree skirt...

then it was time to start placing the ornaments on the tree...

after I finished with all of the ornaments, it was time for Charles to put on the tree topper...

I think our tree turned out very pretty this year...

Now it just needs some presents under it!!

I then moved to the mantle...and decorated it to coordinate with the tree...

I later decorated our entry door which was quite a task!

I like the way it turned out but am a bit disappointed that it doesn't pop from the street thanks to our alcove entrance.

I added a little Christmas to our entry...

(I still have to buy a poinsettia or amaryllis for the snowman flower pot)

and gave Bully his Christmas bow...

and Charles hung our mistletoe kissing ball...Then I placed our nativity on our chest in the living room so that we can see it each day...

and added a little ornament and tassel to the jar behind it.

I still need poinsettias to add to our coffee table, but I really like how my toile Santa (thanks Mama) and my rabbit bell from Daddy show up well on the coffee table...

I added the snowman candle holder Charles gave me to our side table...

and had fun decorating our bookcase...

greenery, ornaments, ribbon and bell garland across the top with our usual door wreath atop the bookcase and Ma's Mr. and Mrs. Santa paintings, my Santa with a train, snowmen galore, including my snowman rock and colorful snowman which always makes me happy along with ornaments on the shelves...

I grouped our Santas (along with our Santa from New York) on our chest...
and added a Santa to Charles's grandmother's teaching chair...
Charles hung our wreaths on our dinning room doors...

while I decorated the table and chandelier...

and buffet...

We then hung a kissing ball above the breakfast table...

and set the breakfast table with our 'Tis the Season pottery along with this year's additions of the pottery napkin rings and Etta B. pottery Santa bowls...

The table looks so Christmasy...

Our little bunny is holding my gingerbread train on its candy cane tracks...

and I added a few decorations around our counter tops...

and added garland and candy canes to the island along with our Christmas countdown snowman...

I added the usual decorations to our guest bath...

but with a new cute hand towel (thanks Mama) and new mesh ribbon for under the tree this year...

Toula got her usual Christmas wreaths in her home area, but Toula also got a Christmas tree this year too...I decided to put up a Christmas tree in our bedroom this year too. We've talked about doing it for several years now, but this year I had Charles bring down our old tree (we affectionately call it our Charlie Brown tree). We added clear lights and bubble lights to it. Then we hung our painted ornaments on it. For many years now Charles and I have each painted pottery ornaments, so we took a trip down memory lane as we decorated this tree!

I added a mesh ribbon bow and mesh ribbon trailing down the tree and the tree skirt I used to use and still really like.

This tree was really fun to decorate, and I just love looking at it!

I finished with just a few touches of Christmas in our bathroom - a wreath, candles which smell so Christmasy and hand towel...

We are definitely in the Christmas Spirit!!

I am looking forward to making our Christmas snacks now!