Haul out the Holly!

It's that time of year -- we need a little Christmas NOW!  With Thanksgiving over and company gone, we promised the kids we'd put up our Christmas tree this weekend and let them start the decorating.  You would think the excitement of this news would inspire all kinds of cooperation, but you would think wrong.  After trying to convince the kids all day long to clean up the family room to make room for the tree, they FINALLY got it done around 5 PM today.  To be fair, Scott and I certainly slowed things down a bit as we arranged and re-arranged and RE-arranged the family room half a dozen times trying to figure out the best configuration for our existing furniture {plus TV and piano} and a tree, but still.  Our plan for an early bedtime for all of the kids tonight was definitively tossed out the window as we made a mad dash to the Home Depot to pick out our tree this evening at the end of an already very long day.

 Non-sequitur pic -- Scott took the girls to see "Frozen" yesterday while I stayed home with the boys.  Ethan was going to go but then changed his mind when the Wii called his name.  

 Daddy-Daughter Date!

 Fresh cut Christmas trees!

Thankfully, once at Home Depot, we found our tree almost immediately and were on our way home in a jiffy.  While Scott brought in the tree and set up the stand, I scraped together a truly random dinner of oatmeal for half of the family and chicken tortilla soup in the blender for the other half.   After making everyone eat,  I let Alex "hang" his basketball ornament on the tree before putting him to bed and then I sat on the couch and got comfy as I took pictures and watched while everyone else worked their magic. 

 Ethan is our lights boy.  Every year he's the one helping Scott untangle and wrap the lights around the tree.  And despite the look on his face here, he really is happy to do it. 

 My favorite of Scott's vintage ornaments -- E.T. phone home!  Hahaha.  This poor little guy has seen better days.

 Jane was bursting at the seams with excitement waiting to put the star on top. 

 Scott remedied her version of "on top" of the tree once she was distracted with hanging more ornaments.

 My two little kindred spirits.  Bonding over the Little People Nativity set.

And that was that.  Despite the fact that I wanted the kids to be in bed by 7 o'clock and that didn't actually happen until 9, the evening was still lovely and ended on a better note than it started.  So, I'll take it!  Happy holidays to me.  And to you.  :)