How in the world is it December already??  I remember sitting in the cafeteria my sophomore year in high school and telling my friends that it seemed like time was speeding up.  That the older I got, the faster time went.  (and now you know how cool I was NOT in high school!)

But here we are, end of the year (again) and to be honest, I kind of love it.  Mostly I love it because I love Christmas, but it’s like I can feel the freshness of the new year around the corner and that always gets me excited and motivated!  There are all kinds of things happening as the year wraps up and we have a wedding for some sweet friends on January 4 up in Chicago so you KNOW I’m looking forward to that one!!

But before we get there, let’s enjoy the here and now.  And in honor of that, I bring you the Christmas edition of 10 things you may or may not know about me :-)

1. While I love the idea of glitter and how it sparkles and it’s pretty and festive, I personally think it’s a horrible invention.  Just the thought of it brings out my inner Monica!  And if the thought of glitter automatically makes me think of cleaning it up, well, it’s safe to say it’s just not for me!
2. I’m not a knick knack person but there are a few things that are sentimental enough that they make the cut and make it out of the boxes each Christmas (see photo below).
3. Metallic sharpies are one of my new favorite things!  You get the shiny, pretty and festive look without the messiness of glitter!  It’s brilliant!
4. When I was in elementary school, I found out that a friend of mine down the street opened a gift on Christmas Eve with her family.  Clearly that’s an amazing idea so I asked if we could start doing that too.  And my parents actually went for it!  One year though we got a little over zealous and opened everything on Christmas Eve.  But we were determined to at least leave our stockings for the next morning! :-)
5. One Christmas in high school I decided our tree needed to be filled with just white.  White ornaments, white lights, white candy canes… I remember sifting through all of our ornaments to find the ones with the most white so we’d have enough to fill our tree!
6. I so much want to try the Christmas drinks at Starbucks but since I don’t like coffee, I don’t want to waste a drink on something I may not like.
7. And because of #6, chances are that between September and January I’ll order nothing but a chai latte, no water, with pumpkin spice since it’s the only time of year they offer pumpkin spice!
8. Christmas cards in my mailbox might be one of the best parts of the month of December!
9. I have plenty of Clemson ornaments but not quite enough to have a Clemson tree.  One day!
10. As silly as some of these are, my favorite thing about Christmas is Emmanuel… God with us… And the reminder of not just the fact that Christ left paradise to live on this earth and be confined to a human body, but that he loved us THAT much to leave paradise and fully become human so that WE could relate to HIM.  He’s walked where we walk, he’s weathered storms like we weather storms, he was tempted as we are tempted. And that overwhelms me more times than not. So if you see me get teary eyed this Christmas, nothing is wrong!  I’m just abundantly overwhelmed by the grace and love of our Savior.

There are several Santa things that I’ve had for ages (like the one in the chimney and the little books) that I wanted out but didn’t know what to do with.  So while I’m not a decorator by any sense of the imagination, I thought it would be fun to have a vase full of Santas.  And I’m actually really happy with the way it turned out!  Now I just have to find where in the house to put it…