Excuse the mess... We live here!

December has a habit of sneaking up on me and then it is gone. Not this year, I have my eye on you Christmas and we are soaking in every string of lights, carol, cookie, feast day, and Santa that we can find. How is this possible you may ask? Well for advent I gave up doing all the "things I should be doing" and replaced it with the "things I want to be doing." The idea of cleaning my house, grocery shopping, and racing around to find the perfect gift doesn't sound like fun so until Christmas is over I am not doing it. It is kind of liberating. One of my friends came over the other night and instead of worrying about what my house looked like I enjoyed her company. Grocery shopping trips have been replaced with impromptu egg nog lattes and watching Micheal Buble with my mom. Mopping the floors has been replaced by cookie making. Sleep has been replaced by attending the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrations with Fabiola. You get the point and consider this a formal invitation to procrastinate cleaning and spend time with those you love.
Our living room looks so happy with our tree. Last year we ditched the red and white theme for pink and purple (the colors of Advent and most Disney princesses.) We had fun decorating and the girls did most of the ornament hanging this year.

This about sums it up!

The most incredible taste of Christmas came when these gingerbread cookies came out of the oven.

Clara is excited, can you tell?

Sophie and Matt doing there best Emeril Lagase "Bam."
I am sure half the people reading this are cringing at the thought of what our floors looked like after this display of flour explosion.

Doesn't every gingerbread man need red gloves and boots?

Maddy hard at work.

Dora and this antique car, that Matt and I received as a wedding present nearly 10 years ago, are my favorite ornaments.

Clara's handy work consisted of a strong low lying branch and delicately placed ornaments

Santa baby.

Preparing the way...

Pretty in pink.

This is the statue of the Our Lady of Guadalupe. She appeared to Juan Diego in Mexico and asked him to build her a church. Nothing short of a miracle this apparition is responsible for converting a large portion of the Americas to Catholicism. The story is inspirational and it is amazing to see a display of such Marian devotion within the hispanic community. Just like in this picture, Mary points the way to her Son Jesus. Seriously, look up the story and some of the scientific findings on Juan Diego's cloak it is awesome.

Happy Birthday Fabiola!