Christmas begins. . .

Every year right after Thanksgiving I have my sweet husband drag the Christmas stuff out. We play Christmas music and set up the tree. This year we Jon even put up the outside lights.

We are now ready for the Christmas season to begin. It's my favorite holiday.

 Apparently it takes concentration to work the nutcracker.

 Lights! Probably the least favorite job.

 Our nativity scene. Read a blog once where the mom mentioned that she'd purchased an inexpensive nativity scene, because she wanted her children to play with it and feel a connection to the story.

So I followed her example and have really enjoyed watching them play. This arrangement is Caitlin's latest.

Tis the season!

I absolutely love Christmas. Thankfully my kids share my enthusiasm. So the Sunday after Thanksgiving we pulled all of the Christmas things out and began decorating. Each year gets better as the kids are more able to be involved.

There are two Christmas things that I collect - snowmen and nutcrackers.

So every year the kids chose the snowmen and snowflakes to decorate the tree with. But this year they finally found the nutcrackers. They acted like I'd shown them candy. Now every nutcracker I own is on or near the tree.

Dominic was a bit more concerned about placement this year.

 

  Caitlin not so much. She had all her ornaments in one spot.

"So kitty can reach them and play with them."

Happy Holidays!

Oh Christmas Tree

I had been putting off putting up the tree because I was hoping to put it in our new library. But we are running behind schedule and so I've switched places and last night we put up the tree in the living room.

The kids had so much fun this year helping us get everything put together.

 

For some reason these beads entertain my children every year. 

I needed the tree skirt straightened out and Dominic crawled under the tree to help. Caitlin couldn't let us have all of the fun without her.

The dogs were right in the thick of everything once they realized something was happening.

The finished product. Not bad considering all of the help I had. =)