It's Starting To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I love the Christmas season and everything that it involves.  It has been fun seeing the kids eyes light up and look forward to some of our traditions.  They were very excited when I told them we were going to decorate our Christmas trees. 

Shane was so excited to get his tree out and wanted to set it up all by himself.  He diligently pulled down all the branches.  I helped him a little but he did the majority of it and was very proud! 

He carefully placed all his ornaments all on his own.  As you can see he liked to hang them in bunches.  He has shifted and moved them numerous times.  He thought it was fun to take some of daddy's trucks and train ornaments from when he was a little boy and put them on his tree.  He also was excited to have a giant night light in his room!

The girls love their VERY pink tree.  It is quite pink but they absolutely adore it.  

It was fun seeing the excitement in their eyes and listening to them chatter about where they were going to put it in their room and how they were going to decorate it! 

Alexa thought her tree was just beautiful.  She said, "Mom, I could just sit for hours and look at our tree!"  The following morning I heard noises in the girl's room at 6:30 which is unheard of because I or their alarm wakes them up every morning.  I opened the door only to find Alexa sitting and staring at their tree! That tree is pretty special to get her out of bed because usually I have to peal her out of bed in the morning for school!

We then moved on to the tree in the Family Room! Every year growing up my mom and Eric's mom both had the tradition of giving us ornaments each year.  We also started doing this with the kids so we have a lot of memories that come alive as the lid of the box comes off.  Alexa once again was so cute.  As she was taking ornaments out of the box she said to Shane and Emma "There are so many precious memories here!"  She cracks me up with her mature statements.  They had fun remembering when they got certain ornaments and when they made others.  Note to self never throw those homemade paper ornaments away! The love looking at them from year to year! 

Trimming the tree with love!  I let this also be their tree and let them put the ornaments where they wanted.  

 

The night flew by so I finished up our "fancy" tree in the living room after the kids went to bed! Note to self next year start in the afternoon! 

The other tradition that we started is that they each have a nativity for their room.  They know when the Christmas trees come out so do the nativities.  They love retelling the story and setting up their very own nativity.  

Shane had fun taking his out and setting it up in his room as well.  I found him often in his room playing with his nativity.  I love it when he pretends he is baby Jesus and is talking to the animals!  

We had a fun evening! It was so much fun watching the kids eyes light up.  I love seeing the memories they have already about the Christmas season in these few short years.  It makes me want to continue to be purposeful in the time we spend together and the things we do during this Christmas season.  

There will be more fun, more traditions and more surprises to come!