We have finished decorating for Christmas. At our house, this isn't a very elaborate thing - we put up and decorate the tree, put out some Christmas-y pillows, nightlights, etc, and put out our Nativity sets. Samantha's favorite parts are the Nativity sets and she can sit and play with them for hours. Thankfully, her Granny has sent her some that are more child-friendly than my Willow Tree Nativity.

Here is a combination of 2 of the Nativity sets. It wasn't until after I took some pictures that I realized that Baby Jesus from Nativity set #1 came to visit Baby Jesus from Nativity set #2. I guess Samantha didn't want them to be lonely.



This morning we had our Chrismon service at church. Samantha posed in front of the tree for me to take a few pictures. In the 2nd one, you can see how she takes after her Daddy. (For anyone who has ever tried to take a picture of Jeff, this makes sense.)



We have some new (furniture) additions in our house as well. When my the playhouse was finished, Grandaddy set about refinishing a desk for Samantha. This desk is actually one that was given to my dad and his brother as a Christmas gift in 1958 from their Aunt Lennie. He refinished it and painted it with the leftover paint from the playhouse - pink and purple. Mimi found the fabric to re-upholster the chair.



This hope chest belonged to my grandmother (my dad's mom) before my dad was born. We're guessing she got it sometime in the 1940's. He refinished this a couple of years ago. I finally figured out where I wanted it to live in our house, and we moved it in today as well. It has a lot of room inside. I have some afghans that my grandmother made, as well as some of Samantha's baby blankets that were made by Jeff's 2 grandmothers.