Christmas Around the House

The day after Thanksgiving, we were excited to get our Christmas tree! This is the first time in four years we've put up a tree and we were especially thrilled to have a real tree this year! Believe it or not, we found this tree at Wal-Mart! It is a beauty - we started there because I had a return and they were less expensive than the other options but they were also all wrapped up so you couldn't really tell what you were getting.

We decided to take a risk because this one was quite a bit taller than the others in this price range and we have been so thrilled with it already. It sort of has a rustic flair to it that makes it seem so homey and not perfect!

I did almost nothing to help with the tree - David made a new cut on the bottom and got it all set up. The girls did the lights and all three kids put the ornaments on. It was so fun to hear them exclaim over their ornaments that they haven't seen in years and have rarely put on the tree in their short lives.

We exclaimed over ornaments from trips such as Pikes Peak and the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead. They delighted in their ornament collections - we have picked one out each year, mostly Hallmark ornaments and they are such treasures! I was surprised at how many ornaments they had each collected because we just haven't gotten them out due to traveling so many years.

There are also some ornaments on there that were mine and/or David's when we were little. I call this a memory tree - it is a little bit homespun and full of lots of special memories over the years! So special!

Rachel read us a couple of Christmas stories - it is always fun to get the bin of Christmas books down from the attic and we snacked on Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes while enjoying the cozy glow of the lights in the living room.

Have I mentioned how great it is having teenagers!? The girls also continued their tradition of putting up all the outside lights - hooray! Such a big help and I am so grateful!