O Christmas Tree

It's officially November 1st and you know what that means??? 54 days til Christmas!!! I am beyond excited, as if you couldn't tell. I LOVE Christmas and get so excited when I am finally "allowed" to put up the tree. Brian and I have came to an agreement that it can't go up until at least November 1st. I usually wait until the week before Thanksgiving but we are already book solid every day until then, so that meant that tree went up sooner. YEAH!!!!!

While the kids were at school yesterday I scrubbed walls, baseboards, windows, dusted, vacuumed,  etc and got ready for the madness to begin. It was kinda nice to get to be able to go thru everything and arrange my cabinets the way I like, atleast for now.

Some of my favorite decorations are: my Nativity (from GG and Gramps), Christmas books from family members, our elf Michael (THIS IS  MUST HAVE...Elf on the Shelf, check it out) and my Granny's Santa boot.

When the kids got home from school and all homework, dinner and chores were done it was finally time to decorate the tree. This is the hard part for me...letting them do this completely on their own! GASP. I am beyond anal when it comes to decorating the tree, just ask my Mom and sisters about me and my obsession with lights. I used to spend hours wrapping each branch with the perfect amount of lights. It was MY thing, thank goodness for prelit trees now!

As I was unpacking the ornaments the kids were both so excited to make their pile of ones that have been given to them each year.  They could tell you who gave them what and what ornament they picked out with Grandma Fisher.  When the get big enough to move out they will have a nice start on ornaments for their own tree.

They both did a great job of placing ornaments and actually got along while doing this. SCORE for Momma!! As they were decorating I was listening to them talk about their favorite Christmas memory/traditions (Angel tree shopping, Reading the Bible story, going to Great Grandparents, Christmas play, ornament shopping, ginger bread house) and got kinda teary eyed. My babies are growing up so fast and it doesn't seem possible. I am holding on to the "magic" of Christmas because I know that its not going to be much longer before things change. Hunter is on the border line now and its kills me, Brian thinks its funny.

When you have such a large family, in laws who are both remarried, family outta state, and both grandparents alive you begin to start planning Christmas weeks in advance. This used to stress me out with all the places that we are obligated to go but it really is a blessing to have that much family alive!! I am going to sit back, count our blessings, and enjoy every minute of this season and try (KEYWORD) not to get stressed as we begin our Christmas rounds on Thanksgiving!

Remember:

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON