Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree ...

Last weekend, we set up our Christmas trees in our house -- all three of them.  This is something that we do together as a family.  Steve hauls the boxes up out of the basement and the kids help assemble the branches with him.  Then they string the lights; all while this momma stands back and takes pictures.  Then, my job begins over the next couple of days, working with the kids to hang all of our ornaments (we have a lot of them) and to decorate the rest of the house.

I am so thankful that my mom helped me last year to put away my millions of Christmas totes in some sort of order.  It has made the decorating this year go SO much more smoothly ...

Setting up the big tree in the front living room:

Jack stayed over on the sidelines, mesmerized by a lone tree branch:

The branches must go in a particular order, and it was Sam's job to separate them and then hand them to Steve when he requested them:

Sophia was able to help with this task, as well:

Jack kept inching closer and closer to the tree!

Making progress:

Getting out the lights:

Helping Momma with the ornaments while Sam was in school and Jack was napping:

She found a Cookie Monster ornament and just kept looking at it ...

Digging in one of the totes for more ornaments:

One day after school, Sam was able to help with a little decorating, as well.  Her and Sophia set to work hanging ornaments on their own little tree at the top of the stairs.  This tree is pretty special to us because it belonged to Steve's parents and all of the ornaments on it belonged to my grandma (who passed away before my kids were born). 

The decorating is almost done in our house -- thanks to a few days of hard work (and some good helpers).  I love seeing all of the lights in our house and it makes me excited to make some more wonderful memories this holiday ...