Hello everybody. Well, the holiday craziness has set in around here. I spent most of the day trying to do some Christmas baking. Trying is the key word there, because it took me the entire day to prepare the dough for my gingerbread cookies recipe. Just the dough! The cookies did not make it into the oven since Mom was pulled away by futsal games, basketball practice, and of course, the dreaded homework.

But before all this, we did enjoy some nice walks to school with this little muffin, so happy to put on her Hello Kitty hat.

We live in an apartment building which is more “on the ball” than us so earlier this week, our building’s Christmas tree went up, ever so pretty since it’s a labor of love among some sweet building residents. The girls loved the doves and cardinals.

Our first holiday event was last night’s family trip to the Nutcracker ballet. We went last year and decided to try to make this an annual family event. This year, we lined up to allow the girls to take their picture with a ballerina.

Getting a family shot proved challenging so we relied on some smaller double photos …

At home today, our ornaments came out and our tree went up. We’ve collected our (mostly Swedish) ornaments over the past 10 years so it’s such a pleasure to take them out of the wrappings and being to decorate the tree and the house with more Swedish Christmas decorations and other holiday decor… we’re just at the beginning tho’… much more to come during the week.

What are your favorite ideas or traditions for how to decorate for Christmas? Let me know in the comments!

So that’s it from our neck of the woods… stay tuned for more of our family’s Christmas as we get our act together — ha ha – and don’t forget to enter our weekly giveaway below.

Oh, and please take note that we’ve got two amazing giveaways launching this week!! Check back in for those…

Sending love and cheer,

Melissa xo

Prize: One (1) $50 Amazon gift card.

Rules:

Enter using the Gleam.io widget below.

Open to U.S readers.

You must be 18 or older to enter.

You have multiple ways you can enter to increase your chances of winning.

ways you can enter to increase your chances of winning. The giveaway ends on Sunday, December 13, 2015 at 11:59 PM (Eastern Time).

Winner will be contacted within 48 hours after the giveaway has ended.

Weekly $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

