Decorating for Christmas

I love the day after Thanksgiving not for the shopping (hello, sleeping in with no alarm!), but for the tradition of decorating for Christmas.  I have always looked forward to it every year.  This year Emily was very excited to help.  She even dressed up for the occasion.

Lincoln was pretty fascinated by the lights and "talked" to them for quite awhile.

I decided to let Emily decorate the whole tree herself.  The beautiful, coordinating decorations from the first 5 years of our marriage bit the dust.  Last year I put up many of my childhood ornaments except for the breakable glass balls.  Emily still managed to break 3-4 ornaments.  So this year we're doing kid-friendly hodge-podge.  The nice thing about having large storage areas in the basement is that you can carry your tree up the steps in one piece, pull off the garbage bag and have an instant Christmas tree with lighting left on from the year before and only minor fluffing required.  The bad part is discovering that one strand of lights is dead.  There are so many lights going in all directions on the tree that it actually took me awhile to even notice.  Maybe if I'm motivated enough I'll try to untangle and replace that one strand.  In the meantime, Emily had fun putting a "necklace" on the tree. 

Then came a few sturdy ornaments with the kids' names on them.  My 4-H project cross-stitch ornaments are on the top half of the tree.  We added a bow from the decorative days and a few colorful pictures thanks to an ornament coloring craft kit that was half off at Hobby Lobby this week.  This is what the tree currently looks like.  I say currently, because it changes multiple times a day.  I'm sure we'll be adding and subtracting all sorts of things throughout the season. :o)

Emily did bundle up and venture outside with me to help decorate the front porch.  However, after spilling (and picking up) an entire box of nails and shattering a glass ball on the steps, she eventually gave up.  I bought a bunch of stuff on clearance after Christmas last year with big dreams of ways to decorate our new house inside and out.  There was also some salvageable greenery left behind in the attic above the garage when we moved in.  However, a lot of it is going to have to wait until I have more motivation and/or the kid-friendly days are past.  ;o)