Finally Looking Like Christmas...

My weekend started at 3:30 AM on Friday morning when I arrived home from work and went straight to bed.  I know it's close to Christmas and the end of the year when I start working 2nd and 3rd shift hours on a regular basis.  Surprisingly, working 14 hours and being up for almost 24 hours wasn't as terrible as I thought it was going to be.  I was up at 4:45 AM last Thursday to teach Spin/TRX, went straight to my full-time job for 8 hours, went back to the studio to teach TRX/Yoga, relaxed at home for a few hours, and then went back to my full-time job to work from 11:00 PM-3:00 AM.  I had already put in 40 hours by this point and luckily didn't have to work on Friday, thank god!

Proof I was working at the Police Training Academy in the middle of the night

I spent my day off on Friday finishing up our Christmas shopping and trying to get our DVR under 20 recorded shows.  We were supposed to go to a holiday party that evening but Todd came home from work not feeling well so we parked it on the couch for the night.

We had a busy day on Saturday as we had to get our Christmas tree, decorate it, clean our house, and get food ready for a pizza night we were having with some friends.  Since we were short on time (and money), we headed to Lowe's to pick out a Christmas tree.  I was surprised there was still a good selection of trees left and they were reasonably priced.  We cut down our own tree last year because the apartment community we lived in had an event where we could do it for free, otherwise it would have set us back $100 for a 7 foot tree.  This year, we only payed $65 for a 8-9 foot tree and didn't have to do any work. 

We picked out a good one!

Todd was in charge of putting on the lights while I was cooking in the kitchen

It only took us about an hour to decorate the whole thing and it looks perfect in our family room

I had already decorated our mantle & fireplace right after Thanksgiving but having the Christmas tree up makes it really feel like Christmas is right around the corner.

I had to buy stockings this year since we never had a fireplace before

I changed out the neutral decorations in the jars for Christmas ornaments, put garland in the back, and switched out our wedding photos and letter "R" in the frames for Christmas designs and wording

Close up of the frames

Since this is our first year in our house, I don't have a ton of Christmas decorations so felt this was a good start.  I also have a wreath on our front door and a Santa yard sign.  Next year we'll work on Christmas lights....