“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” – Norman Vincent Peale

I love Christmas. For me, as cheesy as it sounds, it truly is “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” While some people complain about the crowds, the expenses, and the commercialism – I instead look towards the brighter side of the holidays. In our home, Christmas means family. It means the excitement of finding the perfect gift for someone special, the suspense of keeping those surprises a secret, and the anticipation of what you’ll find under the tree! We still wrap presents from Santa. We bake – working together we bake, arrange, and wrap enough cookies, bread, fudge, and candy to create over 50 giant cookie plates to deliver to friends and family. And we decorate. Oooohhhh, do we decorate!!

“People really act weird at Christmas time! What other time of year do you sit in front of a dead tree in the living room and eat nuts and sweets out of your socks?” – Anonymous

Like Buddy the Elf, we decorate the heck out of everything we can get our hands on!! Just yesterday I told you more about my big, blended, overcrowded house filled with family – {Bloggers Have Messy Homes, and other Thoughts on Housework…} – so you know that my house is filled with not just Me, Mike, and Abby – but also with my brother, my two crazy nephews, and my mother. While we have challenges at times, with so many people and opinions crammed in one house – at the holidays I’m more than happy to let my mom take over! I pride myself on being a little Christmas elf, and I clearly got it from her – she is the total Queen of Christmas. Seriously. She’s good.

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
–Charles Dickens, Ebeneezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol

In our house – tradition is to put up our Christmas tree as soon as our belly’s have all settled from Thanksgiving dinner. We made the switch years ago to an artificial tree, since we keep it up so long. And we are always one of the very first houses on the block to have our lights up! We moved into this house late last November, so we didn’t have much time to decorate the outdoors. So this year, we had to pull all of our gear and outdoor decor out from the garage, and made a plan on how to make out the lights from our old home fit our new one. We did a quick inventory, made a list, and headed to the Sears Christmas Department to stock up!! When I was a kid, we had a really cool older home, and mom would take charge in directing us on how to decorate it – she did such a great job that we would be on our towns “Festival of Lights” directory. So I totally let her be the boss of this lighting business.

“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.” – Larry Wilde

We mistakenly thought that the mall was already on holiday hours – so we had a short {super cold!!} wait outside. Abby was a little fussy at waiting in the frosty weather – but the other shoppers joined us in singing her some Christmas songs! {Love the holiday spirit!} – Once we got inside, all tears were forgotten when she saw the amazing selection of outdoor decor at Sears – especially these big inflatables!! I wish I had a video of her giggles – totally priceless.

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” – Burton Hillis

Other than the Lighted Christmas Pig – see my Google+ story for details on the rest of my shopping trip – these Reindeer were my favorites. We live on a hill, and it’s incredibly windy. So I’ve got the Mister of the house working on a project to make these guys more stable and secure, so I can place a few of them out in our back field. I think they’ll look amazing out there in the snow at night. And with all of the sales and deals at Sears this season, I can totally afford to go back and get a few of them.

“At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.” – Thomas Tusser

We found everything that we needed – including a super cute reindeer hat for Abby! – and headed to check out. We bought their entire shelf of icicle lights, some super cute snowmen lights to line the walkway, and much more. I can’t wait to show you more pictures after we finish decorating this weekend! {Moms boyfriend was in a terrible hit-and-run accident, and things have been a bit turned upside down around here lately – so we’re late getting our lights up. But by Sunday evening, it’ll be a masterpiece! Stay tuned…} Mom and I are both pretty loyal Sears shoppers, and earned points and an extra discount for using our Sears cards. Total bonus!

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!” – Santa Claus

This was Abby’s biggest shopping trip ever – and as you can see, all of the excitement totally wore her out! She fell asleep with her new Reindeer {another impulse purchase of the day. She grabbed him, hugged him, called him her bay-bee, and gave him a kiss. Of course I had to buy him!} as soon as she was in the car seat. I can’t wait for her to see the lights outside when we’re done – Last year she was just a baby at the holidays. She’s now 15 months, and old enough to really have a lot of fun. So, I’m off to finish some work, get some sleep – and get up early tomorrow and get my decorate on!

Do you have some amazing holiday displays at your home? 

Then stop by my Facebook page and share ’em! Post pictures of you fun holiday decor – so the rest of us can be inspired too! 

And don’t forget to stop by and see the rest of my shopping trip on Google+ – and if seeing what I got makes you excited for some shopping too – head over to Sears.com and use code REALJOY for free shipping! {See site for details}

{This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias -I received some promotional items for sharing my experience – All photos, thoughts, and opinions belong 100% to me! Happy Holidays!}