Thanksgiving afternoon, we put the Christmas decorations up. It’s been a tradition for at least the past three years. While I don’t love the stress, and the travel, and the money spent that goes along with the season, I love the decorating and the joy all of it brings to the kids. I also love that I can turn on certain radio stations in the kids’ room at night and know they’ll be playing 24/7 Christmas tunes until December 26 and they’re (practically) guaranteed to be kid-friendly. (These are the things I think about now that I’m a mom)
I always love when we have some help with the tree and outside lights, and this year, we had T.’s parents to lend a hand.
Pack and play Christmas tree for the second (?) year in a row. And yes, all of the lights are lit up now, not just the top and bottom.
Essie chose one branch on which to put all of her ornaments.
Why yes, she is wearing a tree skirt and no, she never wears clothes. Also, no idea what’s up with his expression.
We’ve also done some crafts already, and somehow got daddy (and his power tools) in on the action.
These little angels were a pain to make, then the cats broke them. But it was fun to put them together, together!
And normally, we’d wait until almost Christmas to visit the big light display in Topeka, but I decided that we could go ahead and do it during Thanksgiving break (Ivy had been begging to go out to eat anyway, so we ate our weight in pizza first).
Have the Christmas festivities started in your neck of the woods yet?
Linking up with Natalie and Jess for Essence of Now.
Love this post! The power tool crafts and pack n play tree made me LOL…I remember your tree from last year! Also, I need to know more about playing music for the kids at bedtime. I think my kids would love to hear Christmas songs before bed.
One of these years, we won't need the play pen for the tree! That's funny that you remembered it…I wondered if,anyone would. My kids are weird about bedtime….they share a room and have a light that lights the whole thing up,and they want the radio on all night. They're scaredy cats. Sigh. But anyway, there's a station that plays nothing but Christmas music from thankgiving to the 26th, so that's what's on every night.
So cheerful and Christmasy! We have put up our tree and lights, yet sadly realized I really don't have many decorations.So I'm waiting until after Christmas to stock up on decorations, Although with only boys my decorations might get broken!
That's exactly what happened with our fall decorations, except we just made a couple when I saw that we didn't have any. I refuse to buy Christmas decorations until after Christmas, though!
What types of crafts do you do that involve power tools?? Geez girl, you're ambitious. I see that something requires a hot glue gun and I skip it!
Love that the tree is in the pack and play. Maybe I should do that here to keep it away from the little ones!
Haha! It didn't CALL for power tools….he just thought it might be more efficient. LOL
The pack and play definitely helps with the kids! Not the cats, but the kids, yes.
I love that your tree is in a pack 'n play!
At least it keeps the toddlers out!
We started decorating last weekend and hope to finish up this weekend. We have 3 trees. One is our tree with our ornaments. One is for the boys filled with the personalized ornaments we have bought them through the years and the stuff they have made themselves. The 3rd tree we gained this year as it was my mom's. I never took it down last year and it will simply be moved to my house from hers as is. Then we have the outside decorations, my villages. Yeah it looks like a store exploded in my house at Christmas
That made me laugh….I can see it now! I love going a little overboard with the decorations…how can it not make you smile?!
Okay, WOW. Those little snowman and angels look so awesome. This must be crafting for the advanced..
Oh gosh, no. They're little kits from Oriental Trading!
We put up the first of our Christmas decorations last weekend. Hoping this weekend we can get the tree up.
And now I'm wondering if it would be acceptable for me to wear a tree skirt….
You totally could. Just remember that it probably won't cover your derriere….
I love all of your decorating! The crafts are adorable. Gets me all excited for the season!
Thanks! It gets me pretty cheery, too!
How fun! I love all of those ornaments! This Friday they're having the annual "Light Up The Bluff" ceremony downtown where they light our city's tree and about 6 blocks of lights. I'm excited to take the girls to see it. It should be fun! I love Christmas decor.
So cute! I love the family shots. And you guys are so crafty–I'm totally impressed. 🙂
You family is just so cute! Love the ornaments all on one branch and the pack and play! ha ha ha!!
Love it. We always put the tree and decorations up the day after Thanksgiving and throughout the weekend depending on how we get things done. 🙂