On Friday instead of participating in traditional Black Friday madness Rod and I continued our tradition of decorating the house and attending the Indianapolis Circle of Lights at Monument Circle.

I was excited to hang my two new ornaments from a couple of ornament exchanges I had participated in this month. The first was one from Sunny California!

The other was a couple of foodie related ornaments!

We hung the lights on the outside of the house and decorated with our new Christmas tree that we picked up last year after the season was over. It is SO much bigger than our old tree so it took a lot longer to put up than normal.

The dogs have their stockings and ours are hung. After we got the house decorated we had a frozen pizza for dinner while making hot chocolate to take down to the Circle! We even made peppermint whipped cream to top our decadent dark hot chocolates. Yum!

Each year we bring the dogs as it’s a great opportunity to expose them to crowds and celebrate the season with them. Here I am with Mario waiting for the “tree” to be lighted. We only go for the end of the concert and lighting but it’s always really special to be there when they do the countdown and flip the switch!

I love that Rod and I have our own tradition to kick off the holiday season! It’s only our fourth year of decorating and going to watch the tree lighting but it’s always so much fun. If we ever have kids it will be great to share this with them!