THIS IS WHAT CHRISTMAS INSIDE MY HOUSE LOOKS LIKE.

And now there are plenty of wrapped (and some waiting to be wrapped) presents under this tree.

Merry Christmas everyone.

WHAT IS THE BEST PART ABOUT CHRISTMAS? I thought to myself on Christmas Eve. Awaiting me at my parents house was a pork chop dinner, with mashed potatoes and a tall one – of milk that is. We had a night of viewing The Grinch (which is so much better on that night than any other time of the year) while the snow is gently twirling down on us outside.

So what is the most important part of it all? Is it the magical feeling that you get? The fact that everyone gets along for one night in the year? Waiting to see what Santa threw down your chimney this year? Or the feeling of timelessness as the powder drifts lazily from the sky? Maybe it’s time off work so you can spend quality time with family? Can it be the look on their face when you give the perfect gift?

I think it’s a combination of everything. Nothing is more important than family. So from my family to yours, here is a photo journal of our little Christmas.

Christmas Eve:

My parents tree. Forgive the blurriness. I don’t have a good excuse for it.

Some gifties for the good girls (no boys in this family other than Dad).

Probably my favorite decoration of my moms is this light up deer.

And. . . a closeup of the best foil wrapping paper ever.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a great night!

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN. The one where you dust off the boxes of ornaments, untangle the lights and tackle putting up a tree and your Christmas cheer. The time where you put the holiday music on repeat, cozy up by the fire with a mug of cocoa in one hand, and your lovers hand in the other.

The time where you realize Christmas is more than just magic and is actually a lot of work.

• Learning how to put together a whole Christmas tree

• Putting on the ornaments just right (Mom, I apologize for never helping for more than 20 minutes. Now I see just how big of a chore it really is!)

• Decorating and figuring out where things should go

• Putting a bow on the door – still a work in progress. Blame the tape that just won’t stick.

• Learning how NOT to drive with a tree on my car.

Wait, what?! You heard right. How NOT TO DRIVE WITH A FULL SIZED, 6 FOOT GREEN MONSTER STRAPPED TO THE ROOF OF YOUR MOVING VEHICLE.

Now, let me backtrack. The tree you see in the picture is fake. The one that fell to its doom was real. My friends Marci, Margo and I went to get a tree. Marci is doing an awesome thing right now and decorating her brothers house so it will be holiday ready when he moves in. Since my car has taken multiple beatings from weather, age and a few car accidents, I offered to move the tree. After we went and picked out the lil beauty, we run into problem number one.

The lovely, helpful guys at the department store strapped our tree down perfectly. Wouldn’t budge an inch. . .and neither would our doors! Imagine, five people strapping a tree on top of my car (ok, only two people doing the work, the other three of us were supervising while freezing to death), and out of those five, no one realized they had tied my car doors shut! We didn’t want to climb in the windows, so they redid their wrap job. Mistake number two we believe, is this wrap job.

It failed.

An awful ‘twang‘ from the ropes announced the tree’s wild plunge off the top of my car. Multiple things happened at once. Time stopped. Car stopped. Hearts stopped. Three voices rang out with a collected and disjointed, “OOHH!!”.

I swore.

Tree bounced happily into the middle of the road in my rear view mirror. Last thing I hear is one of the girls asking, “Can we even stop right here?!” and I’m out the door, heedless of traffic as I run into the middle of the street. Adrenaline rushed as I picked up the tree, and ran it safely to the curb. Later on, I couldn’t lift it by myself again. Adrenaline is a funny thing.

Now we had a dilemma. No way to re-strap the tree down, its snowing and cold, and we’re right next to a busy street. Then the cowgirl side of me kicks in. I remember the horse halter I’ve had sitting in my car for a year. The one my sister gave to me as a graduation gift. The one I almost put away, but decided last second to leave it be.

Turns out, horse halters will ALWAYS be handy. Nothing breaks a halter. And nothing ties a tree down in a trunk better than one! And that, my dears, is the tale of how a simple horse rope saved the day.

(No trees were permanently hurt in the making of this tale).