'tis the season!

{photo credit} 

So, in case ya missed it, yesterday was December 1st ... and what that means in Stephanie world is that everybody else *finally* gets on board the Christmas train with me! Bring on the holiday decorations, the music, the baking, the gift exchanges, the much-needed time away from work. Christmas movies and gingerbread cookies and cozy winter nights spend snuggling on the couch? Yes please!

All my Christmas shopping is complete, so I get to spend the next 22 days enjoying everything else this wonderful season has to offer. My to-do list for December looks a little something like this ...

• Do December Daily (one photo a take for the entire month of December)
• Go see the Festival of Lights in Van Dusen Gardens
• Build and decorate a gingerbread house
• Find (and buy!) the perfect hat and mitten set 
• Bake holiday cookies with my girlfriends
• Watch all of my favorite Christmas movies, especially The Preacher's Wife and Home Alone 2
• Read a chapter a day from my new Christmas devotional book
• Meditate on those chapters & pray to be continuously reminded of the true reason for the season
• Go ice skating 
• Drink lots of hot chocolate and eggnog 
• Master my Nana's bread stuffing recipe before I need to make it for everyone on the 25th
• Drive around late at night and see all the pretty lights 
• Listen to Justin Bieber's song Mistletoe on repeat .. yup, I'm not ashamed.
• Read at least one book during my week-long holiday (not including Christmas Devotional) 
• Buy Christmas-themed candy apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
• Think of ways to celebrate New Year's Eve in Portland - any suggestions? 
• Play in the snow, build a snowman 
• Take a Christmas Day family photo (new tradition!) 

What's on your list of things to do or see this Christmas?