This is my absolute favorite time of year, hands down. God
captures my heart in so many simple ways during the season of fall all the way
through New Years, but he does it extraordinarily so during the Christmas
season.
The twinkling lights make my eyes sparkle, and drinking warm
hot chocolate curled up under a blanket on the couch brings warmth to my soul. Things
like a crackling fire in the fireplace, watching really cheesy Christmas movies
(yes, including the Hallmark Channel), having a Christmas playlist constantly
playing from Pandora, and decking our halls with Christmas cheer make the top
of my list as well.
Honestly, I could go on forever about all of the reasons I
love this time of year, and all of the things I want to do to make it special
every day for the whole season. But, as I am here to only write a blog, and not
a novel, I will keep it short and concise!
Zach and I will be celebrating our second Christmas together
as a married couple this year! We are thrilled to not only celebrate our one
year anniversary, but celebrate Christmas as well. So of course that means we
have our own “to do” list for the holidays of things that we want to do
together!
Here are some of our top ones this year…
1.
Take
our one year wedding anniversary “weekend getaway.” Our plan this year is
to visit Helen, Georgia! We will be staying at the lodge at Unicoi State Park,
where we got married a year ago! The city of Helen is always decked out in
lights, so we can’t wait to walk around and make some fun memories.
2.
Visit
Stone Mountain Christmas! We don’t live very far from the super Atlanta
attraction of Stone Mountain Park, and lucky for us, they do it up BIG for
Christmas! This was my first year to go, and I must say, it’s spectacular! If
you are in the area, you must go.
3.
Make
popcorn and cranberry garland for our Christmas tree. It’s a simple thing,
but we found it so fun and it was a cheap way to add some festivity to our
home, and a great date!
4.
Bake
and decorate Christmas cookies! Both Zach and I love to bake…especially
Christmas cookies. We will be making a bunch before Christmas to share!
5.
Have
a Christmas ornament exchange party. We did this for the first time this
year, and it was an absolutely blast! We set up a hot chocolate bar, had some
treats and invited friends and family into our home to exchange ornaments! We
will definitely be doing this again next year.
6.
Watch
“A Christmas Story”. And many other of our Christmas favorites! But
especially this movie…we both love it and it has a special place in our hearts.
(“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”)
7.
Have
our own Christmas morning celebration. Christmas day this year will be
spent with Zach’s family, which is so incredibly special. But we also want to
start our own Christmas day traditions too, so we will have our own small
little Christmas celebration together on Christmas morning!
8.
Drive
around and look at Christmas lights together with hot chocolate. Seriously,
what’s better than seeing some fancy houses with amazing Christmas light
displays while drinking hot chocolate? Not much, I would say.
9.
Read
the Christmas story together. We love the Christmas season, and even more
so the REASON for the season. It’s easy to get caught up in the busy-ness and
even the fun things to do, but it’s good to slow down and really remember why
we celebrate Christmas…the birth of Christ!
10.
Visit Arizona! This one won’t be done
before Christmas, but we hope to visit my family in Arizona around the
beginning of January and celebrate Christmas with everyone then!
While it might seem silly to plan out things like this, I
absolutely love it. It gives us things to focus on and be intentional about,
and we are creating traditions for our family and how we spend the holidays
together and the memories we make from that will be priceless!
What’s one of your favorite holiday traditions that’s on
your “to do” list this year?
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