Christmas at the Connell's

Oh, Christmas Tree!  Oh, Christmas Tree!

How lovely are your branches!

{via cell phone}

It's definitely up!  The Connell family Christmas tree.  Normally, we put our tree in front of a double window in our dining room.  This year, however, we put it in our living room.  We're in here way more often than the dining room and we can fully enjoy it this way.

Oh, and don't take notice to the sections missing lights...  It adds character!

When Chris and I got married, we started collecting Christmas ornaments for different places we visited.  It was a suggestion from my mother!  {Moms are so smart, right?  Especially mine.}

That's our Mickey ornament we got from our family vaca to Disney World.

This wooden rocker is from Nana's tree.  She says she's done putting up a big tree and offered them to us.  I snatched them up and got them home!

{Family - there's more to spare if you're interested!  I've actually got a few box saved for you.}

Here's our skiing moose from Utah.  We went with a group of friends and it was Chris' first time skiing.  So fun!

Our Wilderness at the Smokies ornament.

That's where Chris took me as my surprise birthday overnight!  We had to have an ornament to remember that awesome trip.

This birdie I just got this year on our Gatlinburg adventure.  It's not our official Gatlinburg ornament, but I loved her and thought she'd want to sing from our tree for a long time.

Jim Shore if you're wondering.

Of course we have to have Macy represented on the tree!  This is our shih-tzu ornament Chris' mother gave me for my birthday (two years ago?!).

Our first married Christmas ornament!  It's a picture of us last year.  So sorry for the darkness!  It's definitely special to us.  (Another gift from my sweet Mother in law!)

This was another off of Nana's tree...  I love her!

This was a really sweet gift to us, commemorating the day we got engaged!

Hello Mr. Drummer Boy!

Did anyone guess Nana's tree??

Our official ornament from our Gatlinburg trip!  I even wrote the details on the back of it (date, place, etc..).

A star from China!  My friend, Mary Lou, brought this back from her trip overseas.  It's always been a special one.

A pretty gift from my friend, Amy.  She just gave it to me this year!

{Santa's little helper and our first gift under the tree!}

While wrapping presents, Macy was my little shadow.  And by shadow, I mean stepping all over the wrapping paper, sitting in my lap, and wanting me to love on her the whole time.

I couldn't resist that fur ball face!

{Christmas at the Connells}

Our holiday decorating is meaningful to us.  Not fancy by any means, but fits us just right!

Chris and I are both off work for the rest of the week and I'm already planning to NOT plan anything!  Just enjoying the time with my Mr. Connell, getting a Christmas haircut, and maybe something from the second page of this.  (I'm not very good at not planning anything, am I?  It's a disease.  Someone help.)

Anyway, I assure you this week will be full of lots of love, laughter, and togetherness! 

Hope you're having a lovely holiday week as well...

xoxo!