the most wonderful time of the year...

This right here, right now is my favorite time of the year. While still enjoying the best of the beauty that Autumn has to offer, I'm dreaming of Christmastime.

The stores have begun playing Christmas music and putting up displays of red and green. Some say it's much too early - and the rest of us say bring it on! I love it all! I can listen to holiday music the whole year through, I just choose not to because I don't want the feeling to wear off by the time the snow falls. I am loving these cold mornings! I step out on the deck in bare feet and short sleeves just to enhance the thirty degree temps. I like to see my breath. I love the crispness to the air, it feels clean and new and puts a spring in my step. Inside I'm dying for the first snowfall but I'm trying to hold back to fully enjoy the rest of our beautiful Fall season which comes and goes much too quickly.

I love getting holiday catalogs in the mail; I consider it part of my Christmas celebration. I came across the most adorable ornament I've ever seen in the Pier 1 catalog and I am going to buy it today. Sometimes I find something that I feel like I cannot live without. This is one of those things...

It basically sums up nearly everything I love about Christmastime in one adorable hand-painted design. It's a must-have.

So here I am, rationing my Christmas music, circling toys in the flyers for Scarlett, burning the rest of my Autumn-scented Yankee Candle wax tarts ... gearing up. The time has come, friends... let's enjoy every second! Cheers to the couple of months of joy that we seem to forget about for the rest of the year.