Another Christmas has come and gone and here we are facing the new year. Can I be honest? I am SO glad that Christmas is over. Not to be grinchy about it, but being pregnant, emotional, and exhausted has proven to be the trifecta that has worn me slick. But I think the other reason I’m glad is that it means we are that much closer to getting this baby born. WHAAAA?

But before we do that, a few photos and things to help me remember the beauty of this season.  First off, I wanted to show you a few photos from the Carlton Landing holiday house tour. It was such a fun weekend and I loved getting to doll up our little cottage for Christmas.  Naturally I left my nice camera at home (ugh) so I was left with the dinky iPhone camera.

My new custom pillows I designed came in for the front porch and they add the perfect pop of color to the rocking chairs. And they’re reversible too! Red stripes on the front; navy stripes on the back. Jude’s mad that I didn’t get one made for him. Add that one to the to-do list!

We don’t have a fireplace in the house, so I hunt the stockings with care by the window. And all my plans for a green tree didn’t happen, so we went with the little white tree from our OKC house – aren’t the red snowflake ornaments bright and punchy against the white?

I didn’t get to visit many of the houses on the tour since Simon and I took turns hosting at our own house, but here are a few snaps from my favorite homes:

Back at home in OKC, we wrapped up the school semester with Jude’s school program and then I took him over to our favorite holiday tradition destination, North Pole City. Imagine my little elf’s sadness when he was told he was too tall to ride the little train they have there! He teared up and admittedly, I kind of did too (HORMONES STRIKE AGAIN!).

But he perked back up after a nice little visit with the precious sweet Santa there (remember the year they sang Holy Holy Holy together? I still tear up thinking about it).

And then all of a sudden, Christmas Eve was upon us. We spent the 24th with my family in the evening before heading home to sleep in our own beds. Santa came bright and early Christmas Day and we enjoyed lunch at my in-laws’ home. And it was on that evening that I was struck down with a super nasty cold (OMG AGAIN – enough with the pregnancy-related lowered immunity!) which meant it was home to bed early with us. There’s nothing like spending Christmas night laying in bed with your loved ones, watching old James Bond movies. Fa laa laaaaa!

The days since then have been a haze of cold medication and all kinds of delights. My plan is to spend the rest of winter break snuggling my 7 year old and doing fun things together.