11/28/09

Yesterday we did our annual "get ready for Christmas" day. That day is always full of making memories. It excites me when I see Wesley and Mikayla get excited and how they have begun "carrying" on my traditions on "how to decorate."

Here are Steve and the kids with our tree in the back of the truck. I had to chuckle when we got it home because Steve said it "grew" from the time we saw it on the lot until we got it home. It really is a beautiful tree.
Here are the new Hallmark ornaments for the year. I have such an "obsession" with getting our ornaments each year. The kids each got three, Steve got his "Grinch" ornament, I found one about chocolate truffles and for Steve and me together I got us the old time telephone by Fisher Price. I love that they are doing those old play toys as ornaments. You will get to see all of these more up close in future posts. (I think I took individual pics of all of them. lol)

Mikayla and I worked on the lights while Steve and Wesley had to go get another tree for the kids. We always put one up for them in the office, but this year the "old" one literally broke. lol I hated the thing because it had flimsy branches and every time you tried to hang an ornament more than an ounce it would fall off. He found one that is much bigger, but nicer, too. You'll see it below.

Here it is! The kids are decorating their new tree. :)

Here are all of the Hallmark ornaments I have collected in the last 16 years. We have two full bins of them now. It is so exciting to see how the kids rummage through them to find their ornaments and get excited to see them again. Mikayla was so cute as I pulled out her different ornaments of Cinderella or her fairy series because she would play with them and they would all "greet" each other again. Wesley lined all of his up in neat rows.

Here are all of them... with a few that are not Hallmark thrown in there, too. Click on it to view it larger. The tradition each year is to hang the newest ornaments first so that is what we did again. The Fisher Price phone was the first to hang this year. Now that the kids are older I let them do more of the decorating than I ever have. Let's just say we have so many ornaments that I usually do not break out the regular ornaments that are just the shape of balls or such anymore. I don't mind... they always bring back sweet memories and that is one of the things I love about this season.

Steve and the kids are putting up their Christmas train. They love it!

Here is me photographing the ornaments. I knew I had to do it while the ornaments were easy to capture before we put the tree in place. I am photographing one of the balls that was given to me as a present from a student one year. I thought it was kind of funny. :)

Here is the den/office after we decorated. I did a few things differently on the mantle this year as I got that wreath from my students and parents last year. It is beautiful! Kevin has also given us four John Deere houses/barns, etc... to add to our lighted house collection. This year I used those instead of some of my older ones on the top of the TV area. Wesley added his own touch to the area that had a tractor. I love the house all lit up and shining.