Such a happy time of year...

I've been tagged to do a blogpost on what makes me happy and the only rule is to be specific. So here goes.

- Christmas lights. We went out driving again last night and it was so much fun. I loved it as a child and I still feel as happy today. And hearing the kids' excitement makes it all the better.
- Warm muffins. Specifically the coffee cake one I'm eating right now.
- Statler Brothers Christmas music.
- Laughing in bed late at night with Nater.
- Snowboarding.
- Exercising (I dread it before, always happy after).
- Food. I have a sick appreciation for all delicious food!
- Charity water (specifically water4christmas).
- AHOPE (and other wonderful charity's taking care of other people).
- When I see little babies.
- Family vacations.
- My siblings and I gathered in my parents kitchen laughing together.
- Camping.
- Laughter (I can't not smile when I hear someone laughing).
- My children laughing.
- Warm cookies, fresh out of the oven.
- Lake Michigan (and all of my memories of camping up there).
- Nathan doing his monkey routine (I had the pleasure of this last night). I say monkey but it's actually more like an ape.
- The Twilight series. I have to say it if I really want to be honest here. I'm rereading them right now and I find myself smiling as I'm reading the book. Totally dorky and cheesy but it's the truth. And I'm all about honesty.
- My extended family. I am very fortunate to have come from a very large extended family that we are very close with.
- Snow and watching it fall down in big flakes. I even like shoveling it. I am missing it terribly right now.
- Cherry coke.
- Candy.
- Nature (trees, being outdoors, sitting in the sun).
- Bike rides.
- Nater's humor (those that know him will understand this one).
- Nathan's smile.
- Watching Nathan as a dad.
- Watching movies, curled up on the sofa with a blanket, eating popcorn.
- The smell of Christmas trees (I just caught the scent).
- A glass of wine (or beer).
- Campfires.
- Ou annual Labor Day camping trip with my mom's side of the family (25th year in 2010).
- Good days with the boys.
- And most importanly, my little family of five!

I'm just sitting here imagining what makes me happy and things just continue to pop into my head. I think I could go on and on (and on). So I'll stop now before you have to read anymore. It's just that time of year I guess for enjoying the small things in life. And I'm loving living in a rental home. We have nothing that "needs" to be done around the house. We spend our weekends relaxing on the sofa, hanging out with the boys and trying to come up with something to do. I think I could get used to this slow lifestyle. Soon we'll be owning another home and I hope we can continue this way of life and thinking after we move into our next house.

I'll leave you with some pictures of my 3 little eskimos. I had bought these 3 little vest on clearance last year when daydreaming about living somewhere cold with lots of snow. I busted them out yesterday and the kids have been wearing them ever since. We snapped these photo's last night just before heading out to look at christmas lights. They have their jammies on underneath so try to ignore the terrible color coordinating on my part.
Happy Holidays!