christmas decorations

the children and i decorated for christmas the day before thanksgiving.  it's a fun thing to do with that day off for them.  plus we celebrated christmas with out of town family on friday after thanksgiving.  the decorations above are on the downstairs *nice* tree.  little man has a collection of fire engines, m1 has fairies and m2 has snow buddies.  they get a new ornament each year. 

 the children's tree.  as always, they enjoy pulling out craft projects from sunday school and school that fill this colorful tree.  the angel on top was made in 2008 by m1. 

christmas 2012

little man, dude, m2, micadoodle, m1 at grammy and granddaddy's house

and it's official ~ micadoodle, my 13 year old niece, is taller than me.

she is growing into a beautiful young lady, both on the inside and outside! 

we had a great christmas! fun times with family, quality time with immediate family and time spent in church realizing the true reason behind the celebration.  the children were spoiled by the grandparents who gave them a wii. we now have video games in our home... never say never! of course, no christmas is complete without a new set of legos for everyone. and seriously, the new girl legos are very cute!

 

the children receive three gifts from us... a spiritual gift (matthew west cd for little man, book for m1, and a hermie dvd for m2) a physical gift (sweatpants for little man, jammies for m1, hair bows for m2) and an emotional gift (ishuffle for little man, little house on the prairie book set for m1, and three wheeled scooter for m2).  john david got some clothes and i got a new camera lens!  great gifts all around. 

old timey stuff

 the girls and i went downtown (john david and little man were at the unc basketball game) to look at some of the *old timey* decorations like they had when i was little. 

most pictures by m1!

when we walked out of the building mickey was walking around... i don't know why he's very far from home, but we took a picture anyway!

the family tree

we started little man a collection of fire engines his first christmas, so we now have seven fire engines decorating our tree.  m1 has a collection of five fairies and m2 has two snow buddy ornaments.

we always enjoy decorating the tree together.  little man puts all of his fire engines clustered together near the bottom so he can play with them.  m1 puts her fairies out of reach of m2 (i have several wings to re-glue).  m2's favorites this year are the fairy tale books (pictured above). i find her frequently standing by the tree looking at each book. it is so fun to hear the children's comments as we unpack ornaments... remember this one, i love snoopy, etc. it's fun establishing family traditions together.

the children's christmas tree

the children's tree is a wonderful magical place where all the handmade ornaments go. ornaments made at school, church and during creative moments at home... a lovely final destination when all grouped together with an adorable chain link garland. the children enjoy putting their things on this tree and arranging them just so. even at the young ages of 7 and 5 (no m2 creations yet) they are saying, "remember when we made this years ago". so funny!