Christmas is coming!

      

Its a Charlie Brown Christmas!

Christian

I am not one for patience, I'll just preface by saying that! So waiting til the socially acceptable time to put up my Christmas tree? Not happening! I want it to be Christmas now so, in my mind, putting the tree up now will make it come sooner right? I know! Completely logical. So last night we did just that. I had mentioned it as a possibility earlier in the day and from that moment on it was a constant barrage of questions until we finally followed through! From 10am until we finally put the tree up I was bombarded by my begging children. It was like the 'are we there yet' repetitiveness only it was 'can we do the tree now'. Like a broken record they asked throughout the day until finally I consented. Not that I was upset. I mean, I wanted to put it up more than them. So at 6 we got the tree out. Every year when we get out the tree I think ' is this really what we have to work with?' As the Christmas season draws near I always imagine our tree as this gorgeous, Martha Stewart esque tree of glory, but upon setting it up I realize its my overacting imagination working against me. Before the lights an ornaments are put on, its reminiscent of the classic charlie brown tree.

Lily

So we got to work on sprucing up this artificial greenery. Usually I put all the decorations on and revel in its perfection but this year I relented and allowed the kids to put on all the ornaments. (I did put the lights on it, I'm not good at giving up all my power...).
The joy of opening up the box of ornaments is almost indescribable. Weird, I know, but something about the anticipation of the Christmas spirit gets me every time. Each ornament has a story or a memory associated with it and telling those stories and reliving those memories is so great! Seeing the twins and Lily's first Christmas ornaments always takes me back and makes me smile, and this year each of the kids put their own on the tree.

The finished product...

Over all it was a wonderful beginning to the Christmas season. The kids did such a great job decorating! I did have to rearrange some ornaments due to the fact that every decoration was at kid height and below, and a few were hung on top of each other. For the most part though, the task of decorating fell squarely on the kids shoulders and they rose to the occasion. We did lose one ornament in the process, Jon's 'babys first christmas' but it was ok. A casualty of the season and, with two cats and three kids, probably not the last. The final product is beautiful and now our house is Christmas ready. The only downside of an early Christmas tree? The kids have been asking if tomorrow is Christmas and when there will be presents under the tree....oh well! I suppose it comes with the season!

Putting the angel on