Deck the halls!

One of our Christmas traditions is to go to the same Christmas tree farm the day after Thanksgiving and purchase our tree. This year was no exception. This year the tree farm also had 2 real reindeer! Mark always picks the first tree he comes to while the girls and I wander around forever checking out every angle, every limb, etc. Finally we found the perfect tree.

Mark and I put the lights on the tree. This year I let the girls do almost all the ornaments themselves. Another tradition is reading about and hanging our Adorenaments. These are 12 Christ-centered ornaments that have a picture (for example: baby in a manger), a name of Jesus (Immanuel) and the scripture reference (Matt. 1:23). There's a little book that comes with them that has a mini story to read along with each ornament too. These are by far the most special ornaments we have on our tree. After all the ornaments, Mark held Emma up high and let her put the star on the top of the tree. We think our tree is absolutely gorgeous! Of course we think that every year.

Next I let the girls set up our little village, the nativity scene, the stockings and a special Christmas scene a dear friend gave me several years ago. The girls begged to put lights outside. We gave in and let them wrap clear lights all around the posts and rails on the front porch. Then they put colored lights in 2 of our trees. The only thing left to do was hang the wreaths on the front door, back door and 2 small ones on the mailbox.

I have to say we honestly enjoy our decorations everyday. It's so nice to come home at night and see the lights sparkling outside and the tree glowing in the window. It makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Merry Christmas!