Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree!

Whew, it has been a busy weekend, but to keep things in chronological order, I'm actually taking you back to last weekend for a quick post on our Christmas tree decorating fun! (Stay tuned this week for posts about the fabulous Christmas Tea at church, our Sunday school class Christmas party & more!)
As you know, last weekend after Thanksgiving we had all kinds of fun celebrating Jack's 9th birthday & squished right in the middle of all that partying, we put up our Christmas tree & started to deck the halls!

I love this time of year & to me there is not much better than a big, sparkly, blinky tree that just seems to light up the whole house! I can't help but smile when I look at our tree all aglow. What a precious & vivid reminder of how Jesus lights up our hearts with His great LOVE!

If you remember, I included a few photos of our Christmas tree selection process here...we put it up last Friday night & Jeff put the lights on it. We let Jack stay up a little bit later that night & it was fun to listen to Jeff educating Jack on the proper tree lighting procedures.

First thing Saturday morning, the ornaments were out & everyone was ready to decorate!

 The first ornament goes on!

 Sophie picking the perfect spot for a special ornament she made last year in school.

 Hanging it on just the right branch!

 

 Darcy ooohhhing & aaahhhing over her special ornaments

 Just the one she wants to hang first!

I think Darcy was our most enthusiastic decorator this year!

Carefully choosing just the right branch!

Hanging another one on a different part of the tree...we talked lots about not hanging all of the ornaments in one place! (And I must admit, I am a chronic ornament re-arranger after the kids go to bed!)

 Jack hanging an ornament & feeling "too big" for mom to be snapping so many pictures...

 ...but I'm going to take them anyway!

 Jack sorting through his box of special ornaments...on the floor...where someone sure wants to help him!

 Drew was so excited to see all of the pretty ball decorations! If we could just convince him not to throw them...thankfully the pretty one he is holding is made out of foam...so it looks pretty, but is unbreakable! 

Darcy still reminds him to be careful with the pretty ball. We did still have several ornament casualties courtesy of the nice hardwoods under the tree...I even broke one myself! Drew thought breaking the ornaments was great fun...1) you get to throw something & watch it explode into pretty little pieces, and 2) then you can yell "Mess! Mess! Clean! Clean!" and run to get the broom & dustpan, which just happen to be two of his favorite.things.ever!

 Drew gets to hang a pretty ornament up high with Daddy's help

 Now he wants to take it back off the tree to play with admires his handiwork

 Taking a break...tree decorating sure is tiring!

 Look Mommy, I did a little re-arranging!

 Oh, now I think this one looks better over here...

 Uh-oh, mess!!!

 This boy loves to clean...I wonder how long that will last?

 Partially decorated & coming along nicely...I think the bottom half is just going to be pretty sparse this year...or I will have to find more unbreakable ornaments!

 I love tucking some ornaments deep inside the tree

 Sophie was doing a little decorating in the kitchen, too...My Little Pony is perfectly Christmassy, right?

Now, what good is a Christmas tree if you can't get a perfect picture of your sweet, idyllic children in front of said tree?

First attempt, wrong camera setting...too yellow 

At least one is smiling! (By the way, I just LOVE these matching PJs I ordered off of this Etsy shop! They are cozy flannel & are TOO cute!!)

 

Darcy will not be still for photos...ever...

 Ooops, we lost one!

Come back Drew & stay here!

Not too bad, I'll take it!
(And who knows, this could end up being our Christmas card this year because I still haven't gotten a good photo for that, either!)