Every year, we put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. It always an interesting day filled with Jacqui and Matt putting up the lights while arguing the entire time, and Ski watching and shaking his head while I take pictures. Caders just runs around going crazy as usual!
Below we have our festive Jacqui wearing the tree skirt and doing a little dance!
The kids putting the lights on tree. Notice Cadence going around and around with them even though there isn't a string of lights on there. She thought she was such a big helper!
I find it amazing that in the above picture, Cadence is carrying an EMPTY light organizing string thing, yet Matt still holds a wade of lights all tangled up. How does that happen? Good picture of my handsome boy though!!!
This is the madness that is my house on the day that we decorate the tree!
Matt made Cadence MAD so she got all up in his face. My girl don't back down to anyone!!!
And when she thinks no one is taking her seriously she finds a way to make them! Look at Matt's unsuspecting face!!! Don't worry - I yelled before she actually hit him. No need for violence when we are decorating for Christmas!!
Uh oh - it's not all smiles and mistletoe around here!! Jacqui made her feel better - she thought Matt should get hit by the umbrella too!
The day isn't complete until Ski does something to make us all laugh!!!
A few years ago I used to just open the box and let the kids grab ornaments and just put them on the tree. I can't tell you how many times they went for the same one and ended up in a fist fight. (It's lovely having kids so close in age) so I started a rule that we go through the ornaments one by one while I'm sitting there to intervene. Jacqui picks, then Matt etc.
Cadence now gets her own pile too.
She loves getting her own pile!!! She was on a mission.
How sweet - they are all working together so nicely!!!!
In about five seconds they are about to start kicking each other...
Tradition up until this point is that Jacqui puts the topper on. I hate this particular tree topper but this year Cadence told me it was beautiful so I couldn't get rid of it on her!!!
The finished product!
This was the first year we actually had a fireplace that we could hang our stockings on. We even had one for Baby Ski!!!! Notice the snowman picture frame on the left. Ski's mom got this for me a few years back and I always say I'm going to put pictures in it. Well, as you can see, as with many frames around my house, it still sits just as it did the day I got it!!!
Below are some of my favorite things about Christmas..... most go back to Christmases of the past when my whole family would get together at my Grandma and Grandpa's house!
This picture.
It was a piece of my Grandma's table cloth that she'd use every Christmas on her table. She knew my Aunt Dee Dee loved it and on her last Christmas with us she gave it to her. My aunt kept saying "Ma your going to need it next year!!" and my grandma must have known because she kept saying "We'll see" Well, that next year, she passed away the day after Thanksgiving. A few years later I got a gift in the mail from my aunt (so did the rest of my family) and she had cut it into little pieces for us and framed them so that we could all have a little piece of the table cloth she loved so much and a little piece of our grandma each Christmas. I still get tears in my eyes whenever I take this out each year and read her little note.
I finally have a nativity set and I'm so excited. My grandma used to have one that sat on the stairway going upstairs and every year me and my cousins would play with all the people and animals she sat around it. I am surprised we didn't lose any of them!!! I'm not sure who has the nativity set now but this one was as close to it as I could find.
I found this bowl at Cracker barrel for $9.00. For many years we used to make fun of my Grandma because she had this chicken bowl on her coffee table and she would always say "There's peanuts in the Chicken" It was one of those sentences that you just don't hear everyday! Well when Ski saw this he started calling it the "Santa Ass" The night that I filled it I told them all "There's candy in the Santa Ass" and I swear it was like my Grandma's words came flying out of my mouth!!!
And I would like to say a special "THANK YOU!" to my sister who took all the pictures while we were setting up the tree. Of course, no one took the camera from her and actually took a picture of HER!!! Glad you could be with us!!!
The Marine Corps band marching by! Cadence yelled "The Marines!!!! Just like my daddy!!!" She was so excited.
