The Gardiners

Getting ready for Christmas has been a lot of fun. James surprised me with a nativity set! I had been wanting to get one, but I just got a cheap one from the dollar store. James got the Willow Tree nativity set from the Hallmark store. It is BEAUTIFUL! You can buy the main set, and then add on to it with various stable animals, shepards, etc. We did not get the stable, because it was very expensive and was kind of small.

So several days after I got the nativity, James surprised me AGAIN! He had used his dad's tools to make a manger/stable out of some wood. It looks great! I can't believe he made it, I could never do something like that! He is also going to stain it, but here is a picture of the nativity set:



Another view. We got this Deacon's bench on clearance at Linens N Things, 70% off because it is going out of business. We love it!

We have had a lot of cookie baking going on lately! I made sugar cookies from scratch to bring to work and they turned out so yummy. James and I also make some snickerdoodles this week which were delicious. Here is a picture of some of our baked goodness:

Christmas is a little more than a week away! Pretty much all of our Christmas shopping is done and we are looking forward to some time off and spending it with each other and our family.