20 Things I Love at Christmas

1. Decorating the tree with my husband. Right after our family left from the Thanksgiving extravaganza we went out and got our tree cam home and decorated it... it was our first tree... we hung new ornaments and ornaments from my childhood... It was soo much fun I was thinking about how many more year I will get to do this with Matt!!!


2. Christmas lights. If there was one thing I had to do in the midst of our very busy and very exciting basketball season it was to hang up Christmas lights.... Matt knows how much I love them and will randomly drive through neighborhoods helping me indulge in my love of finding the prettiest house dripping in lights at Christmas time.. sadly albanians arent too fond of hanging up lights yet he still amauzes me about every other night .... knew there was a reason why I love him soooo


3. Watching Christmas Movies. ELFFFFFFFFFF... Christmas Story... and there is always a new movie in the theaters dealing with Christmas I love them all!!!!!!!!!! We just went to see Four Christmases very very cute :)


4. Giving Gifts. I love thinking of gifts to give those that I care about and the anticipation of giving those things.... Matt nad I just went Christmas Shopping and I cant wait to give our gifts to those we love !!!


5. FAMILYYYYY... We leave Saturday to go home and see our family.. unfortunately we still have some family that lives out of state and some friends that seem like family that do too!!! If you are one of those we seriously wish we had a private jet and could make it to see all of you this holiday season.... Matt and I both cherish time spent with those we love!


6. Shopping... I am a sucker for deals and steals.... I am become a very frugal shopper and I love the after Christmas sales and extra percentages off... cant wiat for my mom and I to wake up early and beat all those other women to the good deals!!


7. Hot Chocolate. Matt and I began a RUTA tradition... Hot chocolate while you hang the ornaments on the christmas tree of course it is topped with tonsssss of marshmellows!! and I have continued that tradition to have hot chocolate on most nights leading up to Christmas... I jsut loooooveee hot chocolate especially at Christmas!!


8. Running to the mailbox everyday.I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting Christmas Cards in the mail.... we get to see cute pictures of friends and family close and far away.... each with a sweet note wishing us a very merry Christmas


9. Basketball Tournaments... ok this is new to my list as this is my first year as the coaches wife... but seriously I am very very excited!!! we have had no games all week so I have been highly anticipating seeing a game ....also we will hopefully play one of the two teams that beat us so far!! VERY VERY EXCITING!


10. Christmas morning. My favorite things about Christmas morning is waking up to see what unwrapped present santa left... even into my adult years Santa would come visit me leaving at least one or two unwrapped gifts!! Cant wait to see what he bring this year!!


11. Traffic... I know I know everyone hates the Christmas traffic but there is something about the holiday hustle and bustle that I LOVEEEEE!!! Maybe it excites me to see everyone shopping for other people !


12. SURPIRSES!!! and I know someone who has a big surprise coming!


13. Holiday cooking.... I love being in the kitchen with my mom cooking for the holidays


14. florida weather.... I do love my fair share of snow but having never grown up with it I love the fact that we wear shorts on Christmas day... in fact one year I got a black fur coat and wore it on my new bike outside in shorts and barefooted.... I am a true florida girl


15. New family traditions..... now that I have a "new" family with Matt we can make so many new Ruta family traditions at Christmas time!!!


16. Christmas Trees... just love the smell of a good pine :)


17. Specail Coffees and Creamers.... there is just something about Gingerbread lattes...and peppermint mocha creamers that I just get so excited about!


18. Christmas Parties.... Who am I kidding I love any kind of party :)


19. Driving with Matt in a car just us two... some of our best memories have been the two of us trapped in the trailblazer for a car trip to florida or somewhere else fabulous


20. Orlando..... there is something in that town I love.... oh yeah family and friends... this move has made Matt and I realize nothing... and I mean nothing replaces a good friendship or the love from your family.. CANT WAIT TO SEE Y'ALL!!!!