When life gives you lemons...

When life gives you lemons...make Lemon-aid!  Well that's how the saying goes anyway.  In our case this year the saying is When life give you a busy schedule...decorate early for Christmas!  I'm generally kind of a stickler for not decorating for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving simply because I love my Fall decor.  I love the warm colors and yummy scents. And I just finished and hung my fall wreath.

But this year Phil is (starting today)  an 8 week surgery rotation and will pretty much be living at the hospital.  He loves to be apart of the decorating process, setting up the tree, turning on the lights for the first time etc. so this weekend we brought out most of the Christmas decor and spent a few hours Saturday afternoon trimming the tree while Phil sang Christmas songs to me and the pups (not with the correct words... but it was the tune).

So now my next project is to jazz up a bit or sew new stockings for us since I just bought plain ole felt cheapies at Walmart when we first got married.
Here are some cute ideas I may incorporate.

Wooden glitter letters!!!  Oh yes!

Burlap would look cute in my house I think.

I love the outline piping!

Multi print fabric!  Love!

I also really want to practice/learn hand embroidery so maybe a cute little icon would be cute on each.  Not sure if that will happen for this year though.

Well enough about Christmas... this is the start of Thanksgiving week and it's going to be a busy one.  Work, then cooking, 22 people at my Mom's for Thanksgiving celebration, prep to redo Dad's office (more to come on that), photo shoots.  Lots to be thankful for that is for sure!

A few things I have been pondering that I am thankful for:

1. The hope of Christ and that I don't have to be perfect because Jesus took my punishment on Himself.
2. My health and the health of my family.
3. The community of friends around me that God has so graciously given me.

"O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker." Psalm 95:1-6