Newest Raborns on the Block!: Christmas Timeeee!

Guys, it is FINALLY Christmas time! I am so incredibly excited! What an amazing way to end the year. So much happiness, so much joy everywhere!

I realize that I already posted about making Christmas cookies with Gigi but realized I never posted any pictures! So here are our masterpieces!

Oatmeal chocolate peanut butter drop cookies!

We baked all day and Sasha only managed to run off with one sick of butter😂.

Now onto Christmas decorations! So here in the Raborn house, we put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving...immediately. It is very important to put the tree up right away to enjoy it as long as possible, but not before Thanksgiving. You know how the saying goes, every tree lit before Thanksgiving, an elf drowns a baby reindeer. We don't want that happening.

Here is the rest of the decor around the apartment! If you can't tell already, polar bears are my favorite animal and they are all over my apartment!

And like last year, here are our custom made stockings that I had made for us the year we were engaged. I love them so much and you bet we will be ordering some for our kids one day! So fun!

Some more new decor! I love the hot coco smelling candle and the cute little picture of Cody as a kid. And yes in the background that is a Starbucks cup. I got one of the Christmas cups and colored in the design! It was a fun little craft! In the waaaay back we have our 'Be Merry' plank from our aunt Laurie for Christmas last year (which we LOVE) and we bought that cute little towel on our oven that says 'Best time of year" from Target.

I purchased some fake snow from our anniversary trip in Gatlinburg this summer and I am so excited to use it!

Here is a further away view of our tree. It's not a very tall tree but it's full of love :).

We got this angel from Gatlinburg at Christmas time last year. It is so majestic and gorgeous. This year we plant to get a nativity scene and the following year an advent wreathe, and the following year, a Christmas countdown.

And the really cool thing about being married and our own family, is creating your own traditions. I talked a little about that last year. This year Cody and I really enjoyed hanging up the ornaments we had collected over the past 6 1/2 years and how each ornament kind of tells a story; each has a special meaning. If you are interested, keep scrolling below!

This ornament is one of Cody and I's favorite. I got it for Cody for our third Christmas together. It is a wooden cross which has the story of Jesus carved into it.

This is our most prized ornament. We had full intentions to get this in Gatlinburg during our actual first Christmas married last year but the Christmas Shoppe was a zoo. We decided to come back for our anniversary and did just that. We waited in zero lines. It was so special to get a customized ornament for us to keep on our tree until we are 90+ years old. I just love it so much. (The bears are just so precious!)

I made this ornament for Cody last year for him to open for Christmas. It is something very special to us to have our first apartment. While I was still in school Cody looked around for a long time to find the perfect place for us and get our name on the list. We were lucky enough to snag a ground-level apartment in the coolest apartment complex in the area. AND Cody got to move in 3 months before the wedding which was a dream for planning and setting up.

This special ornament isn't actually an ornament at all. It is a little case and it was just so beautiful to not hang on the tree. It is a hand painted box of a horse that Gigi got me a few years ago for Christmas.

This specific ornament was our first official ornament. This ornament was the first ornament I gave Cody on our first Christmas ever over 6 years ago!

This ornament we got as a present from our cousin Nathan. It is so special! He gave it to us as a wedding present and found it at Panama City Beach (our favorite place and honeymoon location). There is actually a twin ornament of this one that he gave us!

This ornament is so sweet! Our Nana (Dyar) gave it to us this year and it is a Santa with a Thomas Kinkade pained coat! So special! We love his work!

This ornament I think I showed last year. We made sure to collect sand from our honeymoon a year and a half ago to make into an ornament to remember what a special week that was and to see the gorgeous shells.

These Mickey and Minnie ornaments were bought during out second part of our honeymoon in Disney! We absolutely HAD to have them!

These three ornaments have a special story to them. So the blue ornament with white stars on it represents me and Cody's love for stargazing (especially early on in our dating relationship) and how Nana gave it to me the summer I was going into college. I would always look at it when I was getting overwhelmed and felt instantly better, thinking of family and Cody who all cheer me on. The pine cone ornament I got from Cody two Christmas' ago. We always have a joke about pine cones with his dad ("You know what we haven't talked about in a while? Pine cones") So it always makes us laugh. And the Smokey ornament which you can't see very well to represent UT of course.

The Starbucks cup represents our love for Starbucks and how many times we have gone over the past 6.5 years.

We got this beautiful bride and groom ornament from Gigi two Christmas' ago and have had it on our tree ever since! So precious!

The Coca-Cola polar bear and a tennis racket and tennis ball because tennis will be my sport for life!

The kitchen aid mixer ornament represents our love for cooking, specifically baking (ours is teal though).

And of course a little polar bear. I always like two similar polar bears on the tree so I am searching for this little guy a friend.

This horse represents my love for horses and horseback riding. Oh how I miss it and the horses.

This ornament represents my dad and how every tree needs a 'glass-looking' ornament that is so perfectly placed and amplifies all of the lights in one area and can be seen from all angles of the room. So I tried my best to do the same. What do you think dad?

Also a very sweet lady I work with at Shaw gave me this sweet UT license plate ornament which I LOVE! It was a very sweet gift and so thoughtful!

What will be really fun in the future will be to see the ornaments we collect over the years when we have our first house, kids, grand kids, etc. The fun never stops!