All Decorated

This past weekend we followed our tradition of getting the tree up and the house all decorated.  I am not sure what the favorite part is for everyone, but I know the kids can hardly wait to dig into their treasure boxes.

We started a few years ago, getting them each a Modge Podge (plain brown) box from Hobby Lobby.  We started to decorate a couple but never finished, maybe another project for this year!  In each box we store each child’s ornaments.  They love to dig into their own boxes to pull out all their ornaments and put them on the tree.  Somehow they are able to remember where they got many of them – amazes me!

 

So once the tree goes up, the lights put on, the kids dig into their boxes and start placing ornaments.  This year’s funny line was PJ saying “J remember when we were little and we put all the ornaments on the bottom?”  So long ago….

I will say having a shorter tree allows even my young boys to almost reach the top!  In Mansfield we had 10 foot ceilings, so we always felt like we needed to put up a 9-10 foot tree, I do not mind our new 8 foot ceilings – it may seem like a smaller tree, but I kind of like our 7 foot one!

So Robert went out with a few boys and hung up the lights – even J hung a strand or two!  Good training for his future wife!  It seems arguing about putting up lights stretched far beyond our walls here!

We’ve watched Santa Claus #1, soon to be followed by #2 and #3.  It has been so much fun this year enjoying the excitement of the kids – our daughter runs around, just about all day, telling everyone how excited she is that it is Christmas!

So the stockings are hung by the chimney bookcase with care – in hopes of lots of goodies to soon be there!! (Yes, that is my little elf, always willing to help glue, hang, or pose!! ps – she dressed herself.)

Around the outside of our bookcase are our Advent envelopes.  Yes, I saw the most adorable ideas on Pinterest – if you have all those fancy gadgets – you can make some amazing stuff.  I do not.  But I have a 5 year old who loves glue, scissors and a few markers – voila!!

Not something you would see in a decorators magazine, but I love them!!  And AG glued all most all of them – so she loves them too!  The kids cannot wait to break into them – Thursday is day 1 – one for each day with our little activity printed on them.  Simple, but the kids will love it!

I love the traditions that was have really settled on, our kids sure seem to enjoy them too!  Next up, we need to get into the Gospel for Asia catalog and figure out what we are getting this year!  I plan to make some felt ornaments to hang to remind us of our choices!  Just like the chickens we made last year to remind us of the chickens we bought through Gospel for Asia!  I love teaching the kids all about what this season really means!