It's Christmas time in the City

It's Christmas Time in the city...and in the johnson household. I finally found time to decorate for my favorite time of year. I had a great time decorating with Mattie and Jaime. This was my first time decorating this house, and i am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I had a hard time deciding where to put the tree. It is squished in at the bottom of the stairs for now :) i may try to find another place next year.

Here are some pictures of my tree








A few details





Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. Growing up Christmas was always a very special time full of special memories. Some of my favorites are:

1. The year my sisters and I got up and opened all our presents before my parents woke up. It wasn't funny or fun at all then because we were sent our rooms for the rest of the morning
2. Christmas candy. My mom is the Christmas candy making QUEEN. I used to love her chocolate covered peanut butter balls till i ate so many that i got SOOO sick...haven't had once since. But it is still an favorite for the family. Chex mix is my ABSOLUTE favorite! my mom makes the best ever....even though i pick out the peanuts.
3. i can vividly remember when i truly believed in Santa. It was so exciting to stay up and listen for him and to set out cookies. now i just know that my dad is a big fan of milk and cookies :)
4. My favorite Christmas gift of all time was my guitar a few years ago. I know that sounds silly because i never ever played it, but for some reason the feeling of seeing it out Christmas morning is one i will never forget!
5. Seeing the tree decorated and lit up is always so thrilling. i love having a home and my own tree to decorate now. I hope that my children will love decorating the tree as much as my mother and i do.

Christmas Traditions! We have a few in the Freer/Johnson households. Here are a few.

Johnson House: (we spend Christmas eve with Denis' family each year)
* we have a nice dinner before we do anything else. It usually includes fried chicken and Macaroni and Cheese...it's amazing.
* then we read the Christmas story. When denis and deanna were growing up, they would try and memorize the verses and say them along with Denis Sr....oh wait...they still do this...i am WAY behind.
* after we read the Christmas story, we each take the chance to pray and thank God for all his blessings throughout the year, and we pray for the year to come. I just love this part.
* then we open presents!...just a side note...each year my sister-in-law gets me coal for Christmas... i am hoping for chocolate coal this year. if i am going to get coal, i at least want to be able to enjoy it! GEESH!

Freer Household: (we drive down Christmas day to spend Christmas at my parents house)
* growing up we each were able to open one present on Christmas eve. it was always such a process trying to figure out which one to open.
* THE BOW GAME! don't ask me how this started or when or even why. But my sister's and i are very competitive and this adds some MORE excitement to our gift opening process. The goal of the game is to end up with the most bows covering your body as possible. I won last year for the FIRST time! it was thrilling!
* Christmas breakfast is always a special time. The food just seems to smell better and taste better than any other time of the year. sounds silly but it's true.
* Family Fun time! the rest of the day is pretty relaxed until the sun goes down, and then IT'S GAME TIME! we spend the evening laughing ourselves silly. denis and mike usually hide downstairs. They don't seem to get it quite yet!

What i am looking forward to most this Christmas:
* spoiling harmony! last year it was all about kemper. Now, it's all about that beautiful face.
* SEEING MY BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it could cry thinking about it.
* just being around family. best place in the world.
* Denis and i will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary! so hard to believe.
* giving...i am very excited about my gifts so far. I love to watch the faces of those i love most opening a gift i have put so much thought into.

Merry Christmas everyone!