Christmas is Coming!

Every year, I'm never completely sure who my "helper(s)" will be when it comes time to set up the Christmas trees, lights and decorations.  It depends on who is in school and how fast I want to work at the task.

This year, I opted to go slowly; I just brought up a few decorations at a time (the heavy totes stayed in the basement) and I accomplished a few tasks each day.  It really made things so fun for the kids because they would come home from school and look around to see what was new and different. 

And the boys were able to partake in most of the decorating ...

Ready to head upstairs to decorate the smallest tree in our trio.

We often refer to Jack as our "work horse" because no job is too small.  He takes the reins and dives in full force. 

It's a small tree and quite sparse, but the kids love having it set up and it does look pretty nice once the lights and ornaments get hung on it.

These two boys ... They're half of my world and so precious to me.

Jimmy loved playing with the decorations (no breakable ornaments for him).

Oh, his face would light up with each new discovery.

A look of mischief for his momma:

Securing the decorations on the top:

Jimmy managed to snag one of the ornaments and somehow just knew that it was forbidden!

I couldn't love this picture any more.  Jack was putting the hooks on ornaments and Jimmy reached over to grab his hand because he wanted to help. 

Putting the final touches on the tree:

The final masterpiece, complete with the cuties that "helped."

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Our middle tree resides in our back family room and is decorated mostly in red and gold.  I display several different types of ornaments on this tree including all of my kitchen/baking/cooking ones.  Jack helped one morning during James' naptime and was SUCH an incredible help, unwrapping all of them, putting the ornament boxes back away and then hanging some of them on the tree.

He was incredibly gentle with all of them.  Just look at those chubby cheeks and look of thoughtfulness on my 'rough and tough' little man.

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I didn't want the girls to feel completely left-out, so I had them set up our largest tree, the one for the front living room, when they arrived home from school one day.  I am so proud of the teamwork that they used to organize the branches and how they took turns putting them all in place.

The branches are often quite tricky, but they caught on fast and worked ever so efficiently.

Sophia's tongue sticks out whenever she is deep in concentration.  Always.

The best of friends (most of the time).

James wasn't quite sure of the texture of the branches.

Later that night, after I had strung all of the lights on, we decided that Jack would be the one to put the tree topper on.  This is always a special job for the chosen person each year and this was Jack's FIRST year to be able to participate!

All ready to go!

Sure, it was backwards ... but I just fixed it later in private.  He was proud of his sacred role!

Meanwhile, Jimmy discovered the Santa pillows and promptly began to remove strings of their beards!

Finally, I hung the canvas that I made this year.  Such a simple idea that turned out pretty nice -- a blank canvas that I free-handed some snowflakes on.  I poked holes through the center of each snowflake and then stuck a light through.  I also made one for my mom for her birthday that she has displayed at her house.

We believe in this house ...