best. christmas. ever.

grace is getting so cuddly! i love that she can just fall asleep on me anywhere we are. i hope that lasts a long time. :]

every year on christmas eve my mom gives us each an ornament that represents our year in some way and since we were born she's done this for each of us. once we marry she does it for our spouses too. each year we pull out our huge plastic containers filled with small boxes that are labeled for every year since birth and hang our ornaments on the real tree in the corner of the livingroom. i call this tree the crap tree- not because it looks crappy, but because there is so much random stuff on it! we have temples, and cars from when we got our licenses, we have baby ornaments, and wooden ones my mom made of us one year, we have clay ones, vegetables, "stripper heels" (glass slippers with feathers on them... dont ask), a snowman that looks like a donut, a ship in a bottle, partidges in a pear tree, glass bells, flowers, humingbirds, butterflies, graduation caps, schoolhouses, crayons, polar bears in coca cola outfits, in and out, penguins, vintage suitcases, a diet coke can, a football player, a garden shovel... the list goes on and on and on. it's ironic that i call it the crap tree since it's my most favorite holiday tradition (besides reading the grinch who stole christmas in every accent i can think of trying not to pee in my pants laughing) and it's one of the most sentimental parts of christmas to me.

this year, with a family of my own, i've begun the same tradition of starting our "crap" tree (has to be real, has to be noble fir (which we didnt get this year but will next year because cutting down your own christmas tree means you're probably going to get a prickly one that the deer haven't eaten yet and since i'm terribly allergic to pine needles... it was bad)) this year, grace gets one ornament for last year and one for this year. her last years ornament is a peanut with a baby inside.


isn't it so cute?

brandon's ornament is a combo from last year and this year- it's a schoolhouse with a bell



and miiiine is from my childhood nickname, brandon got it for me- can you believe how small that is? it's from the kid's meal at mcdonalds...


FRENCH FRY!

(as per, "France is" and my maiden name is Francis) (some people really don't get why my blog title is France is, so now you know!)

i love her ham-cheese smile. can you see her little tooth that is growing in the front?


i can't believe i have a six month old little baby who is not so little anymore! it's the best christmas present in the whole wide world.