December Daily 2: The Cutting of the Tree & Decorating the House

Today we went to the National Forest and cut us down a little Charlie Brown tree. Bekah REALLY wanted this one. It's a cute little tree and for $5 you can't beat that! The kids loved hiking up and checking out the selection.
Topher was so funny-he would stand next to a big tree and say;
"Look mom! The biggest tree in the whole wide world!"
Word for word.
Where do kids get this stuff?

We got home and got right to work getting it in the house and starting the decorating process.
When Chad and I were both kids-both of our dads would leave our tree outside at least a whole day to let it 'fall' and put off for a bit cutting it to just the right height before bringing it in the house. The anticipation as a kid to get that tree in your house was more than we could bear!
We won't put our kids through that kind of torture-we get home, from cutting it down-it's in the house within the hour!First the lighting of the tree-and taking the baby's picture playing in the strands of electric lights waiting to give the kid a little shock at the first drop of slobber. He loved it-I couldn't get him to look at me for anything-he could have played there all night but Chad was getting impatient to finish the lights so we could get on to the ornaments.I took pictures and handed out the ornaments to the all so willing tree decoraters.

I threw out all the ornaments that annoyed me last year-so we don't have all that many-mainly just the ones that mean something to us-and a couple cute ones. Each year Chad and I get each other an ornament that represents something that happened in that year.
The kids each get an ornament according to theme-Bekah, snowmen-Topher, Santa Claus-Porter, reindeer and even though Zach and Ryeleigh aren't here we get them ornaments too-Zachary, nutcrackers and Ryeleigh, snow stuff.
We open them on Christmas Eve, along with our new jammies and hang them on the tree before going to bed, (the ornaments not the jammies).
It's a fun tradition and it's where most of our ornaments have come from. Someday I would like to have a family tree and a pretty tree to decorate with matching ornaments and the whole bit-but for now this will do nicely.Porter tried to help with the tree too, but once he grabbed on he wouldn't let go. He was too funny-getting so excited and squealing at it.
Christmas Cluttered Entertainment Center The stockings all hung by the mantle with care... A few of my favorite things:

I LOVE this Nativity music box my sister in law brought me home from Switzerland.

Every year it is the thing I look forward to most of all in our Christmas decorations.

My new favorite ornament: Some of you Portland girls will remember this from last year and our ornament exchange-I brought it and I wanted it so bad, I cheated a bit at the game to keep it. It just makes me smile every time I look at it.

This star. I looked for a long time to find the perfect tree topper. I love it.
It was a fun day, full of Christmas spirit.

The kids have been happy all night, although....

There was one fit about this cheesy wooden santa box that I put in the Goodwill box along with some other decorations that were not my taste, but still around. Bekah cried and sobbed and threw out a lot of "mom is mean"'statements when I told her it was going, and to leave it alone. This didn't stop for at least 45 minutes.

Sometimes having a dramatic little 4 year old is SO much fun!