O Christmas Tree

Yesterday was our annual Christmas Tree Decorating Day. Emma reminded us earlier in the weekend that we "always get Chinese food when we decorate our tree." I had sort of forgotten that so I was thrilled that one of the children remembered a tradition! After the little ones afternoon naps we loaded up the gang and headed out. First stop was the park to get some more pictures of the kids - I had some Christmas attire and my outside pictures always (usually) turn out better than indoor ones. I enlisted Paul's help (?) to try to get a good couple of pictures. Paul lasted about 13 minutes and he was all done with being my photo assistant. I got maybe one picture and that's being generous - maybe another day this week will be nice and I can try again. On my own.

We went to a local farm to look at trees. We totally lucked out and got to visit with Santa there! They also had a hayride that we got to do which was basically a circle around some cows but the kids loved it! Paul was excited because they tied our tree to the top of the car.

We got home, unloaded the tree and I started the first batch of Christmas cookies - Paul's favorite - Snowballs while he got the tree in the stand and then got our dinner. Mom came over to watch the action after dinner and of course the kids didn't disappoint. Julia was more interested in playing the the ribbon. Lily put a ton of ornaments on the tree though she refused to move from one spot so we have about 100 ornaments in a cluster exactly where she was standing. Emma couldn't decide what was more fun - the ribbon or the ornaments so she was back and forth. And poor Jacob was just walking around inspecting things then throwing them when he was done looking at them. Entertainment (or birth control) for sure!

The tree got done and it really feels like Christmas around here. I got a good chunk of shopping done over the weekend, ordered the Christmas cards and wrote the annual letter. I love this time of year!!