Christmas is our favorite time of the year. We start playing Christmas music in August and can hardly wait to put up the decorations the day after Thanksgiving. This year we purchased the "Perfect Christmas Tree". What a wonder! It comes from its box with 1000 lights already attached. What a joy it was to put up this tree and not have to untangle and fight with all those lights! :-)

We have several family traditions associated with our tree. All through the year, we look for ornaments that have signficant meaning for what is happening in our lives. It may something from a place we visited, a new hobby we've taken up or some other significant family event. Each one has a story just waiting to be shared with some unsuspecting guest!

To celebrate our German heritage, we have a very special ornament, a glass pickle! Traditionally, the ornament is left next to the cookies and milk and Santa Claus does his best to hide it the tree. Being green, it blends right in! The person who finds it Christmas morning gets an extra gift from Santa.

This year, along with our traditional decorated sugar cookies (Santa's favorite), The girls are making Gingerbread Houses!