Christmas Has Begun...

Despite my normal rule of waiting until after Thanksgiving, I have started listening to Christmas music. I even watched Love Actually the other day. It's one of the movies in my rotation. Others include How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey version, of course...I watch it at least 3 times sometimes much, much more), The Holiday, and Christmas Vacation. I thought it was harmless, but before I knew it, I had taken down fall decorations and put up all the Christmas decorations. Most of you who know me, know that my Christmas decorations are not for the faint of heart. I was raised in a family that believed if it doesn't take you at least a few days to get all your decorations up, then you don't have enough! :-) If any of you have seen my mother's beautiful house at Christmas, you know what I mean. It's the stuff that should be in magazines! Now, I'm not quite up to par with her, but I had quite the collection when living in Dallas (let's be real, it's started in college...maybe high school even). I think I took about 1 hour to put up my decorations here in Tokyo. Granted, 2o minutes was figuring out the stupid tree light strands. Aren't they the most frustrating thing? You plug in the strand, and they all work. Then, you put them on the tree and plug them in and half of them are out. They drive me nuts! Anyway, here are a few of my Christmas decorations in my humble abode...

We have enjoyed having the Texas flag as our tree topper the past 2 years (thanks, Alison)!

I bought these place mats in Tokyo a little while ago. I can't go without buying something each year (feeding my addiction, if you will).

Garland from Ikea...who knew?!

Not so festive, but we did move this sleeper sofa from the office/spare room into the living room and got rid of our bigger sofa. We also added the brown recliner/rocker. Here's what we needed to make room for in the other room:

A bit bizarre to have this thing up, but it was just lying around in pieces, so why not? A friend in Tokyo was getting rid of it, so she let me have it for about $50 (including mattress) and even drove it over to me. Very thankful! It just needs the oh so adorable bedding that is waiting at my mom's house!

We also got the dresser in the back and this other sitting chair. We planned for the sitting chair to go in the living room, but John has taken quite a liking to the recliner. Until I set up camp in that chair for nursing, he can have it. :)

Elliott does have a wardrobe started.

I bought this in Tokyo. They are knit overalls (6 months) that I couldn't pass up.

This is actually the very 1st thing we received from our dear friend, Kaleigh. She had the greatest reaction when we announced we were pregnant. My family was waiting in the car waiting to go to the airport in Hawaii, and they heard her scream from inside the house. So fantastic!

This sweet little Chinese dress came from a Tokyo friend that moved to Hong Kong over the summer. She came through Tokyo for a short visit. So sweet!!

Here first Baylor wear! Thanks to Tanya and Brian for bringing this when they came to Tokyo for a visit. The prayer for scholarships has begun! Sic 'em Bears!

A friend in Tokyo who wasn't sure what she was having received a lot of gently used baby clothes. Once she found out she was having a boy, she gave it all to me. I thought this was a sweet, little dress.

These past few weeks have been a bit crazy. We have been organizing and planning for our little Thanksgiving trip with friends. It's a lot to plan when you have to transport an entire Thanksgiving meal! Today, we met with one of the other couples embarking on this trip to take their Christmas picture in front of their Christmas tree. Here are a few sweet shots from the day all to include one of the sweetest little girls ever, Amanda Moxon.

We went to take our picture, and she wanted in on it. The preciousness is over the top!!

This pic is a little dopey, but whatever...

I know this is the longest blog ever, but I'll just include two more pictures. We headed to church after going to our friend's house because they live very close. I realized we really didn't have any pictures of our church, so here are two to share.

The reddish blonde haired man is our pastor, Dennis Folds. Today was his 70th birthday, and they had quite the celebration with cake and all. His wife is from Dallas, and they lived there for several years. They've been at Tokyo Baptist for quite a while.

Hope everyone has wonderful Thanksgivings will family and friends!