It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This year (as I do most years) I decided not to join in the Black Friday Craziness and instead stayed home and started on the Christmas decorating. The Santa hats were a very happy find for the kids - Tyler is really into hats right now and put one on right away. Katy quickly followed his example and the hats have been off and on for the last 2 days. Do you know how many times I tried to get them to keep those hats on long enough for a Christmas card photo last year?!!

Trying on the stockings. Nope Ty you can't actually wear those!
Kaitlyn helped me place some of the odds and ends around the house but we had to wait until Sam got home from work to put up the Christmas tree. The kids were so excited and all over the place - we could hardly stand it and almost cut the activity short. Tyler kept stepping on the tree branches and hurting his feet, then would come to me for a hug before wading back in among them to get hurt again. Kaitlyn, thankfully, finally settled down enough to eat some dinner while Sam finished the assembly. Then we got them distracted with a movie while I worked on the lights. Sadly, by the time I got to the decorating part Tyler was already in bed and I was so tired the ribbon placement looked horrible and I decided to quit for the night. But Katy had been so patient about waiting for her turn to put on the "jewels" (ornaments) that I let her put on five ("my age!" she said) before putting her to bed.

This morning I was wide awake at 5:30 (not unusual for me since my aerobics class starts at that time) and got back to the tree decorating. By the time the kids woke up (45 minutes later? I hate it that they don't sleep in EVER!) I was ready for them to add the ornaments and snowflakes. Kaitlyn was happy to do so and pretty much finished up the tree by herself since Tyler wouldn't let go of the first ornament we handed him. He carried it around with him for almost an hour using it as a "trailor" for his backhoe, among other things.

Ugh, I'm thinking maybe next year I need to ask Santa for a new camera! This picture is awful, but that's the best I could get of the tree in all it's glory. The other settings just wash out the lights so...

I am still congratulating myself for curbing most of my perfectionist tendencies, making only slight adjustments to all the ribbon that got knocked out of place by the kids before we got the fence up, and even more so for not adjusting anything Katy put on :)

It was rainy and dreary today so we have to wait until tomorrow to put up the outdoor lights and garland. But we did finish up the day with pizza and games with my family - including my uncle, aunt, cousins, and Gram - before Bon and Larry head home tomorrow.