Merry Christmas In January!!

I love Christmas and I don't think I've been all that subtle about it. ;)  I love the time of year.  I love all the ridiculous warm fuzzy feelings that come out with the holiday.  I love that there's so much warmth, love and happy feelings and memories associated with this time of year for me, that I really have a hard time holding myself back through the other 11 months!  My favorite colors are even red and green!  This December was pretty crazy for me between work and various other obligations.  I was burning the candle at both ends and wearing myself out.  Work got crazy busy trying to finish up projects by the end of the year.  And outside of work, there were all the various holiday gatherings, events and things to do and see that didn't leave me a whole lot of time to sit back and really enjoy the season as much as I normally like to do.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have cut anything out that I did, but I would have greatly appreciated a lighter work load during that month that would have allowed me the time to better fit in more quality time with everyone.  It's the time of year for being thankful for everything that we have.  To really realize all that we do have, be grateful for all the positives in our lives and try not to focus so much on the negatives.  I realize it's a little cliche to say keep Christmas in your heart all year long, but it honestly is a good message to be mindful of.  Be thankful for all that you have, spend quality time with the amazing people in your life and just keep those warm fuzzy feelings flowing!

To keep that "spirit" going, I really wanted to do a sort of Christmas celebration each month leading up to the actual holiday itself.  Granted, October does have Halloween and November has Thanksgiving and those holidays should be given their due.  But that still leaves the other nine months.  So starting this month, I'm celebrating the spirit of Christmas each month.  Conveniently enough, since I'm so behind in my blogging, it also allows me to get caught up on holiday pictures with the dogs.;)  So, I'll be posting pictures on the blog of the dogs during our previous Christmas to go along with the theme.

This month I'm going with pictures from our Christmas card shoot.  While I was more prepared this year with treats and toys for the photographer to get the dogs' attention with, I underestimated the antsiness of my "little" puppy.  The number of shots it took to get some decent pictures was pretty hilarious.  Getting Miley to hold still long enough, get everyone facing the camera, and keep Heffner from making faces; took a longer amount of time than I had anticipated.  And I even took them hiking that morning to burn off a little energy!!  Anyhow, without further ado, here are some of the out takes as well as some of the shots that almost made the cut for the actual card:

Last night, in honor of Christmas Eve in January, I celebrated with a friend of mine.  She cooked the dinner, I made reindeer cookies from a recipe that I found on Pinterest and we watched Scrooged while drinking wine.  It was pretty great!

So regardless of how you feel about the holiday or what you celebrate, cheers to warm fuzzy feelings, amazing four legged kids and the many fantastic people that we have in our lives!