Photo Friday: Christmasy

I surprised Ella this week by setting up the Christmas tree one night while she was sleeping. We've decided to keep the decorating light to stay in line with the simplicity we're trying to incorporate into life. It works well since we really don't have a lot of decorations anyway!

our tree in front of the window so we can see the lights from the street at night

the mantle

the upstairs railing by the bedrooms - garland from Target last year

mesmerized by the tree

Miss Ella was delighted. And so was I.

***********
I almost forgot to share something that happened in all our sorting & boxing! A couple weekends ago we were packing the Jeep to be gone for the weekend and decided to donate a load of stuff at Goodwill on the way out of town. We dropped Ella off with friends in town, left the donations at Goodwill, and drove to the Cities where Sam was staying with another friend, Shauna. I had made cupcakes for Shauna and for the Christmas party we were attending that night but couldn't for the life of me find them when we were at her house. I looked and looked and looked. I was still baffled when we got to the Christmas party until I remembered what we had put the cupcakes in. A grocery bag. We had another grocery bag along with two boxes of stuff to donate. I asked Pete, "Love, how many bags did we donate at Goodwill today?" He responded, without question, that we had left two bags and two boxes.

I hope you enjoyed the cupcakes, Goodwill. They were my little Christmas treat to you. :)