It’s the Christmas weekend and I’m excited! Thus, I’m taking off early this week! Well, not that much activity happened anyways because I’ve been doing some last minute shopping and card making…

But anyways, so many festivities going on this weekend as my family and friends all gather together to celebrate the birth of our Lord! It’s during this time of year when I often find myself forgetting or even purposefully neglecting the real meaning of Christmas. Sometimes I do just want to go present shopping, research delightful ways to wrap up the purchases, listen to Michael Buble sing his holiday tunes, and decorate my house with twinkle lights. {You can probably tell just by looking at my Wonderland Magic Collection!} These are all things I did growing up and that’s all Christmas was for me up until I became a Christian. I still enjoy those things very much, but now it’s getting harder and harder to be content with just that list of things…I need Christ in my Christmas! Even though it’s still so much easier to get carried away building my memories with shopping and decorating when it comes to Christmas, I have concluded that without celebrating the birth of Christ, Christmas just becomes another day where people stress about gift buying and ham baking for a month in advance. What’s your Christmas about this year?

News of the week? Last minute, my husband and I remembered that we didn’t finish putting together our own Christmas cards. I spent all my time making sure everybody else had their orders completed and shipped on time that I didn’t even think about how we would let our friends and family know we were thinking of them. So a fast sketch had to be done and an ultra fast print! I won’t even tell you how fast! But the Christmas cards came, the pictures were printed, the envelopes bought, and deliveries made or still in the process of being delivered. I’ll post them on Monday!

Also, my Kate Spade party has come and gone, but I’m still waiting to get some pictures to show you! Hopefully that’ll happen! My husband and I just purchased a new camera for ourselves {our other one was quite old and is currently selling on ebay for .99 cents} and are still learning how to use it. Our pictures tend to come out dark. Here are two tolerable pictures: one of my dining room getting it’s decorations on and one of our lovely Christmas tree!

And now for some links for the weekend!

This would be a fabulous Christmas morning {via Pizzazzerie}.

Splendid table settings are a must for this week’s parties! Check out these finds via The Knotty Bride.

Loving the idea of milk and cookies for Christmas {via Gray Likes Weddings}.

I utterly LOVED this post: bridesmaid dress shopping the vintage way ~ Meg Perotti shows us how she did it! {images via Meg Perotti’s blog}

I love this holiday table setting shoot by Simply Bloom via Style Me Pretty.

Nothing like having “in love + shipwrecked” be the inspiration for a wedding! See part one and part two on Green Wedding Shoes!

Twinkle lights and an engagement session are great together with Benj Haisch.

There is something scrumptious about this Christmas table setting via Crate & Barrel.

Learn how to gift wrap with Gray Likes Weddings. So many sparkles! Or perhaps you like simple? Wrap with Flights of Fancy!

Hope you all have a fabulous Christmas! MERRY CHRISTMAS!