Decking the Halls

This past Tuesday night we put up our Christmas tree. I think this is the earliest that we have ever had it up, and it was thanks, in large, to our busy schedule that we did. And Tuesday night? Who puts up their tree on a school night???? Those that have weekend activities right up to December 20, that's who!

When we got down the Christmas decorations, we found Josh's old train set. Ahhhh, the memories. Josh and his friend Andrew were obsessed with these trains for about three years. They each had a train table and all the pieces. We got it down for Hannah and she loved it. See...I knew it would be an investment!

Maddy enjoyed modeling the Christmas decorations...
Daryl took the big kids to get the tree....

and Hannah and Maranda...

While Charlotte and I stayed home.

Here's the gang in front of the tree. This is the second year with Maranda in the picture. Last year when we put up our tree, it was her first time coming over to our house, and we cleaned for hours. This time? We picked up the toys. Ha! Notice that Hannah is in mid-meltdown. Too much excitement + no nap = cranky Hannah.

And her is a picture of our "tacky tree," as Josh puts it. He calls it this because Maranda's tree is one of those beautiful all matching trees (actually, it's her whole house, but sigh...that is for another post) and ours is what I would prefer to call our "memory tree." Every ornament has special meaning, or was made by one of the kids, and has a special memory attached to it. And the tacky star, well we bought that together the very first Christmas we spent together as a family, before we got married.

Hannah LOVES the tree. She loves to look at it, to plug it in, to sort the presents under it. She is really enjoying Christmas this year, and it has made the season fun. Which is why she was so distraught when we came home from school on Thursday to this:

But never fear...it's back up and just as beautiful as ever!