December

I decided I needed a little breather from studying and life for a little bit. :)

I just adore December.

One of my favorite parts is standing outside when it's snowing, and listening to the silence. It's like this heavy mask of peace has just set over the whole world. Do you know what I'm saying? Honestly it's impossible to describe. But it's absolutely perfect.

This year has especially been needful of Christmas cheer. I must admit, I'm usually the biggest advocate for "no Christmas music till after Thanksgiving!", but this year...I just needed that music. I  needed to have my Christmas and December memories surrounding me.

These last few months have been just a tad difficult. Always blessed, always. But some days were just harder than others. School has been killer (almost done with the semester!), transitioning into married life has been an adventure that I love but definitely takes some getting used to, having a job that I have to work for as much as possible in order to pay the bills every month, and all other things have made things crazy.

So I needed a little Christmas spirit a little early this year. And no worries, friends. I am so so so happy. :) Really! I just needed a little pick-me-up, and December was the perfect trick.

I have so many cherished memories of this time of year. I literally could do 25 blog post about it and STILL not be even close to being done explaining all my memories. But let's do one for today, yes?

          When mom would get the tree out every year (we've had a fake one forever due to my Dad's burning of the tree story), we would pull out all the branches and pull apart the pieces to make it look all pretty and not like it had been sitting in a storage room for a year. I still remember the smell of the fake pin needles. After we would pull out the branches, Ben would bring out all his Ninja Turtle action figures and we would place them in the tree and play with them for hours. They would hid among the branches and do crazy-out-of-this-world tricks, jumping from the top branch to the bottom and surviving. It was the best thing ever. Then mom would say it was time to decorate the tree, so we had to put the Ninja Turtles away till next year.

I think about all these little traditions that didn't seem like anything, but were the world to me and hope my children make ones of their own. I hope Chad and I can create a home were our children feel they can play make-believe. I want them to feel magic, just like I did and always will because it was that precious to me.

I ADORE CHRISTMAS/DECEMBER.

Love always,
Ally Jo