The stockings are hung...

We went over our good friends Jenni and Eric's home the other night. Jenni is a fabulous decorator, especially for different seasons. She inspired me to put up my Christmas stuff yesterday! My house is not nearly as festive as hers, but I did my best between the two kiddos' naps.

When the stockings were finally hung on our mantel, I couldn't help but smile at the fact that there are four gold quilted stockings up there. At Christmastime last year, we were enjoying life with a vivacious 9-month old. Quinn was cruising along furniture, crawling everywhere, and eating everything in sight. We didn't do official Christmas presents, because Quinn wasn't into opening presents at that time. Quinn wore tons of beautiful velvet and tulle dresses and skirts and sported festive headbands on her still-bald head.

Never did I imagine that we'd be so blessed to have a new baby in 2011; what a wonderful, sweet surprise!

Christmas is going to look very different this year. I have presents for Quinn to unwrap, and I'm going to stuff the four stockings on our mantel. Wes might even get a treat or two in his. :-) I keep reading friends' blogs about all of these fabulous traditions that they have....but I'm not the kind of person who tromps through a field to pick out a real Christmas tree, I'm not really a fan of Christmas music, and with two kids under two, sipping eggnog, watching Jimmy Stewart, and gazing at our tree is just not going to happen.

However, this Christmas season I'll still make little treats for my family. Quinn will look gorgeous in all of her holiday finest, and Wes will be her handsome sidekick. Randy and I will steal sips of each other's wine between bouncing a baby, wiping spills off the counter, and reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar for the 100th time. Perfect? No. Real-life? Absolutely. :-)

Somewhere, amidst all of the food and noise and family and friends, we'll find traditions of our own.