'Tis the Season

We're finally finished decorating (for the most part), so I thought I'd take some time to post some pictures of everything we've been up to around the house. Last Saturday, David put the lights up on the roof, and I decorated our Christmas tree. Truman mostly slept.

It was a really tough decision, but we went with our fake, pre-lit tree. Last year we had a real tree, but we decided to go fake this year for a few reasons: We are only here for 3 weeks before we travel home to Missouri, and no one will be here to water the tree while we're gone, making it a fire hazard. We also have to put it upstairs right now because we're not sure what Truman will do with it. He was great with the trees at both of our parents' homes last year, but he was never left alone. He is a very curious dog, and we would really like to not have to take him to the vet because he decided to try a fallen pine needle. We'll go back to real next year, hopefully, but definitely once we have children.

One of my favorite parts is putting up the nativity scene. It's a beautiful nativity that we received from my Aunt Rosie and cousins as a wedding present. Last year we had it upstairs on a bench, but we finally have a proper place for it now and can display it downstairs.

We put the finishing touches on the house today (well almost). We hung some fresh garland on the porch and a wreath on the front door. We also decided to get some stocking holders this year. We didn't see any stockings we liked for ourselves yet, but we did find one for Truman. There is a place for a picture on it and you can flip it to read "naughty" or "nice". Truman can never make up his mind on that end, so we thought it was perfect. Not that Truman really cares, but since he's part of our family we feel he deserves a stocking :).

Truman did bark at the stocking when we first hung it up. He seems to do that when we place something new in a room. At least something on the mantle. When I originally placed the vase on the mantle, he reacted the same way. He seems very unsure of it. David let him sniff it and see that it was fine, but just a few minutes ago he was sitting up and barking at it. Yeah, so that happened...