christmas spirit

ben and i pre fancy pants party
thanks to my mom for baby sitting and my aunt resa for the awesome jewelry.
ben and marley on the hayride trip out to get our tree
marley tugging ben along laughing
ben being manly and cutting down our tree
marley sitting next to her tree
so excited!
me and my baby girl on the ride back
telling dad how to put the lights on
inspecting the lights
channeling uncle kirby
hanging her first ornament
somehow it turned from putting the ornaments on the tree to haning them on granny
wonder and awe
our beautiful tree

we found out christmas spirit here this past weekend. we started off on saturday night by going to ben's company christmas party. it was a super fancy pants affair. and it was fun. we didn't really know what to expect, but it's a great company ben works for and the directors of all the different sites were there and all were very friendly. we danced and had dinner and won a christmas present. a nice warming chair massage-er, which should come in handy for me soon. on sunday we finished our christmas shopping and ended the day by cutting down our own christmas tree. marley liked that part the best. she laughed and ran around. thought it was a great adventure. and she even helped decorate it. overall, it was a wonderful weekend.

on another note, not to preach, but just to put the thought out there. with economic times as they are there are even more people in need. and the holiday season can be especially dreary to those already struggling. ben and i have decided to cut down on the amount we spend on christmas presents and instead make a donation to a charity. we're choosing one i worked at in philly, for my own sentimental reasons. but as i get to watch marley's excitement and wonder grow the closer we get to christmas, the more i want to enable another child and their parents to experience the same thing. if you don't know a charity, united way is always a good place to start for local organizations. also the gift of your time can be invaluable. the holidays are a very lonely time for people. what might not mean much to you, can be the highlight of some one's day or even their week. and you never know how blessed you will end up being in return. ben has had an interesting dilemma at work this past week and it's something we have had to talk about how to handle. in the end we have both decided that we should set the example we want marley to learn from, particularly in our actions. sometimes that is not the easy decision. and sometimes it is as simple as being thankful for the blessings we have and doing what we can to share them.