It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's Tuesday...and not just any Tuesday....Tuesday before Thanksgiving, which means today is my last day of real work for the rest of the week!  It seems appropriate for today to be Small Treasure Tuesdays with Chantel, because, well, having time off is a HUGE treasure at that.  That, and so is the holiday season.  I know I wrote about this last weekend with the holiday traditions T and I have, but I promised pictures....so this week's Small Treasure is holiday decorating because that truly is a treasure.

To start off with, we have our tree, adorned with ornaments that we each have from our childhood and then ones we have been collecting each year we've been together.  Isn't it pretty?

 

Now, this next one might seem odd to you all of you, but I told T before we moved into our house that I always wanted a garden gnome when we got a house.  So he bought me one as a surprise last Christmas.  Of course, I didn't want to subject Jerome (the name I gave my gnome) to the elements of winter so he stayed inside until spring.  Since it's coming upon the cold season again, we've cleaned him off, and he's joined us for the winter.  He's even in the Christmas spirit!

The picture is bad, but we got 2 little gnomes at Meijer a month ago, one for each of our hometown teams - IU and Michigan.  They don't have names yet.  Any suggestions?

On our tree, we have our "Just engaged" ornament from last year, along with this year's "First Christmas Together" ornament.

A close-up for my shoddy picture taking skills....

And, of course, we have our Guinness ornament we bought in Ireland to symbolize our honeymoon and time spent in Dublin.  I seriously heart this ornament.  It's dark like the beer, and the top is all frosty white, just like a perfectly poured pint!  It makes me seriously want a Guinness right about now...

We have 2 other trees in the house, too, but one of the pictures didn't come through for some reason.  T has a mini tree from his childhood, and that is up in our bedroom and looks beautiful in there.  I have a slightly larger mini tree from my childhood, and that is on a table in our dining room.  The picture isn't too great, but you get the idea...

Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care, lights are up outside, and the house is in full Christmas spirit.  We had the lights on just for Saturday night when we put them on, and they won't be turned back on until we return from Michigan, but the house looks so homey and pretty.  It really gets me excited for the holidays!  

Stop by Chantel's blog and check out the other Small Tuesday Treasures people have to share!