Christmas Craziness

Ady has been really sick this week, so I haven't gotten a whole lot done. Each day I have done a little and finally its starting to look like Christmas around here, although I still have a lot to do. Yesterday I put up the Christmas trees and put lights on the porch, but we didn't have time to decorate the trees before bedtime. So as soon as the boys got home today we started decorating their tree. I have one tree in the family room that the kids get to decorate all by themselves. I put all the more colorful and non breakable ornaments in a box for the kids to use and on there tree they can use colored lights. Then I get to decorate my tree in the Living room by myself and have white lights and they aren't allowed to touch it. Last year we did this for the first time because we got a new tree and thought it would be fun to have two. It worked out so well to have the kids decorate their own tree. I can let go of my anxieties and let them do it however they want. And then I get to have complete control over my own tree. I am also planning to get two more trees, one in the office for me to decorate really nice, with all matching ornaments instead of the hodge podge of memento ornaments (although I love those too, thats why I need another tree!) and then a tree in the kids room upstairs decorated with toys and things. I had a tree in my room when I was a kid and I loved it. I love sitting in a room lit only by the Christmas lights on a cold winter night snuggled under a blanket. I will probably wait until after Christmas to get more trees when they are on sale. We will see.

The boys decorating their tree

Ady was so sick she didn't put too many ornaments on.

Here is their finished tree

(well, almost. It still needs the tree skirt and Tayden wants to build a train around it.)

The Family Tree. I mostly decorate it will snowflakes and snowmen, along with the ornaments my kids make each year and the ones my niece and nephew make. Also there are a few memento ornaments that have been given to us by loved ones.

The Miniature Tree in the Dining Room that Ady helped me decorate with the Mini ornaments. (There is a mirror behind it, so thats why you are seeing double.)

My Aunt gave us a Gingerbread Tree decorating kit, so we put it together tonight to be our Kitchen tree. Closer to Christmas we will bake gingerbread from scratch and make real gingerbread houses. Its a tradition that comes from Dave's family. But until then this was fun too. :)

Ady didn't participate in this either, she just layed her head down on the counter :(