It's a Jolly Time of Year

Christmas seems to be sneaking up on us this year, probably because of the fact that Thanksgiving was later than usual this calendar year.  With only a few weeks before the big holiday, I was anxious to get my decorations up the day after Thanksgiving.

With the kids' help, I set to work delegating tasks and letting them take a lot of the reins this year.  I always add in my own finishing touches, and it still takes me a full day and a half to have everything up where I would like it to be, but I have to say that it went very smoothly.  No broken ornaments, no major fighting and a well-lit house when we were done.

I just LOVE having lights up everywhere -- it is the soft glow of them in the later part of the afternoon and evening that makes everything seem so cozy.  I put lot of them on switches so that I just need to click a button and ... ta-da!  (And I let Jack in on the secret as to where those switches were so that he could take over some of the nightly duties of turning them all on).

We started with the tree in the back family room.

Side story -- the tree that we have had in this back room (and my most favorite one in the house) is 16 years old.  I bought it when I moved into my apartment for grad school and it has survived numerous moves and has been put up and decorated every single one of those years.  Over time, the lights have burned out and I continue to simply string lights over the burnt-out ones.  Finally, this year, I agreed to get a new one ... but only if we moved that one to the basement (where the boys' rooms are) and continued to use it and decorate it.

A trip to two Home Depot stores later, on Black Friday (!), and we ended up with this one and I love it.  I can control it with a hand-held controller and the lights can change colors, or blink, or fade.  And it just looks perfect in that space (one of our neighbors -- who used to SELL Christmas trees -- thought that it was real at first glance).  It is taller than the previous one, but it still fits and I adore having my red and gold ornanments on it, along with all of my special kitchen ones.

My most treasured ones are the Hallmark ornaments that are part of a series that Steve's mom started for me before she passed away.  She loved Hallmark and I make sure to stop in there in December to collect the two news ones and add them to the tree.  The kids all know the significance of them, as well.

Putting the final ornaments on before I came around later that night and draped garland on the tree:

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Jack helped me set up the old tree down in the basement.  I had planned to wait until the next day, but he was SO EXCITED about it and begged to set it up so that he could "surprise Jimmy in the morning."  Clad in pajamas, he worked like a pro and we had it ready to go in less than a half-hour.

We later moved it to another corner and sure enough, Jimmy was tickled to see it all lit up in the morning, draped with a tree skirt and hosting pool ball ornaments, some Detroit Tigers ornaments and sock monkeys.  Note to self: we need some Michigan State ornaments to add to it next year.


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Setting up the big tree in the front living room ... the kids are EXPERTS at this.  They know exactly how to organize the branches, fit them on the specified tiers and click them into place.  I just sit back and break up any arguments (if there are any).

Samantha basically stays put while the others bring her the branches.  It's kind of a perk for being the oldest.

No branch was too big for this guy.

 After I strung the lights, the kids worked feverishly to decorate with all of the their special ornaments.  This is my FAVORITE part of all!  I love to listen to them recall whose ornament is whose; where they got it from; how old it is ... and then watch as they pile the ornaments up in almost the SAME location as all of the others.  (We are still working on the idea of spreading them out, ha!).

Even Mia was involved in the action.

Sam teared up more than once as we were setting up the tree.  She knew that this would be the first Christmas without Watson, our beloved cat that passed away earlier this summer.  She loved Watson (we got him when she was 15 months old) and he was pretty attached to her -- always sleeping on her bed at night.  It was an unexpected loss (we think that he had a heart attack) and just seeing his ornament hanging on the tree and the cats' stocking just dredged up a lot of memories for her.

(We buried him in the woods at the base of a beautiful oak tree and picked out some flowers to plant there in memory of him.  That way, she can visit him whenever she wants).

Last, but not least, the angel for the top of the tree!  We decided that it was Jimmy's year to put the angel on the top ...

 ... but when it came time for Steve to lift him up, he got scared (so weird for him!), so Sam offered to put it on top for him.