Christmas in April?????

No.....it's not really Christmas in April, although we HAVE had winter weather in the middle of our spring! This is just my attempt at going back in time a little to show others what fun Matthew and I had decorating for our very first Christmas together!

This is a view outside our front door. There was definitely more snow than this throughout winter, but it has been a fairly mild season compared to other winters we've had in the past. Secretly....I didn't mind! I didn't like having to drive to work in the snow and trying to trek down to the hospital while pregnant. The U of U Hospital doesn't have ANY employee parking close to the hospital and the ice was definitely not my friend. Luckily I made it through the season without any falls in spite of my growing belly.

Here's our front door. Originally we had thought to get a wreath, but ended up liking the different look this gave. We went to Tai Pan Trading Center for a lot of our decorations since neither one of us had hardly any decorations for Christmas. It's a very addicting place to go to though! Kind of like Wal-Mart or Target.....invariably you come out with more items than you had ever originally planned on getting.

Here are two pictures of the Christmas village I had put together a couple of years ago. It sat on top of our piano (the one that used to be in Grandma Beckham's house). I remember looking at Christmas Villages in other people's homes when I was a little girl and I could stare forever, imagining little people living in the houses and going to the stores and I could make their lives be whatever I wanted them to be. Someday Evelynn may have fun letting her imagination go wild too!

Here's a garland we had running down the stair rail from our top floor to the bottom floor of our home.

Some more garland and bulbs I used to decorate the secretary and mirror that are in our front walk-way. Mom and Dad Blackburn gave us the Christus statue for a wedding gift. It's absolutely beautiful and is wonderful to see when you first walk in the house.

Matthew saw a HUGE poinsettia at his work and immediately went out and got us one too, as well as one for his mother and my mother. It was absolutely beautiful and HUGE!

This is the fish tank Matthew had while he was in Hawaii and subsequently brought here. The one he had in Hawaii was a salt water tank with brightly colored fish he would get right out of the ocean there. Here though, you would have to pay hundreds of dollars for those same fish and since we figured we would be buying a lot of diapers in the near future...... well, then maybe we should do a fresh water tank instead. The fish are a little less bright, but still definitely enjoyable to watch. Matthew keeps saying how it is so relaxing to him to be able to sit and watch them and I have to admit I've found myself mesmerized by them as well.

I saw these deer at the Trading Company and fell in love with them immediately! This was on our "coffee table" in our living room.

Here is our nativity scene. I bought this two years ago....but never imagined that I would have King Kameamea included in with it! Matthew is determined to teach Evelynn that King Kameamea traveled from Hawaii to protect the little baby Jesus! I had to tell him that maybe that wasn't such a good idea since she would be bound to believe it and then repeat it to others in Primary and everyone would wonder what kind of apostate gospel we were teaching in our home :-) Still, there he is.....protecting the baby Jesus!

Here is a close up of some of the ornaments on our tree. We decided to use Gold and Maroon as our color theme with gold and white snowflaces and icicles and white poinsettias mixed in as well. We had a lot of fun decorating the tree and with a 6'6" husband I almost didn't have to use a stool for the top!

Here is our tree in all it's glory! It was HUGE ~ we would have gone with one a little smaller, but Matthew wanted to be sure that he could lift his children up above his head to be able to put the final touch (the star) on the tree and so the tree had to be taller than he was! He's so funny.....and we can't wait 'til Evelynn is big enough to start that tradition with Daddy :-) Now all we have to do is make sure our ceilings are always taller than our tree!

Here is Matthew standing proudly by our tree......

Notice that I'm quite a bit shorter than my honey! I think this is one of only two pictures of me while I was pregnant (here I'm 6 months pregnant). These pictures were taken in January, right before we took all the decorations down! Yes, a bit belated, but at least we got them done.....right!?!?!

Here is my Sweetie and I doing our best "arm-stretched out as far as it can go" self-picture. While we spent the actual Christmas Day up in Idaho we had a lot of fun making our own place a cozy and colorful place that added to a wonderful Holiday Season.

Really it's all about Family anyway, both here on earth and for the eternities.....that is the gift of Christmas and all the colors and traditions ultimately pale in comparison to that although it's still enjoyable making things bright and pretty during the winter months!