Deck the Halls

It's beginning to look more like Christmas at the Stouder house. We put up the tree this week, and got the ornaments on it today. Emmy helped us with the ornaments, and even put a few on the tree herself! She was terribly excited by all the cute little figurines and twinkly lights. She says Christmas "treats" instead of tree. So cute. We worked outside this afternoon, and visited with the neighbor girls and their flock of chickens. We hung lights on the front porch and raked leaves/pine needles to the street for collection. Tonight, I'm sitting down with my recipe books to decide what kind of baked goods I want to make this year. Of course, there will be Gram's famous butter cookies, which hopefully Emmy will help decorate. That was always such a fun tradition for my brother and I. We each have some of the Gram's holiday cookie cutters, and will bring those out this year for sure. I also need to get stitching on Emmy's Christmas stocking. I didn't make her one last year because we weren't at our house for Christmas, and she was too young for a stocking. She will definitely be into it this year, so I need to get sewing. My brother and I still have (and use) the stockings that my Mom made for us when we were born. I hope Emmy's will also be in use 32 years from now! We went to JC Penney's today to get our family portrait done. We ordered our Christmas cards, which turned out really cute. Emmy was a bit of a dicken's during the photo shoot, but we managed to capture some nice pictures of her. We all wore red tops and blue jeans, staying true to our family's casual preferences! Right before our photo shoot, there was another family with a daughter named Emerson...and they kept saying "Emmy!" to get her to smile. Our Emmy was a little perplexed by the strangers shouting her name in the other room!