The Christmas Spirit

We are full of Christmas spirit at our house! We got our Christmas tree Thursday afternoon, and the boys loved running through the trees on the Kroger lot.

A picture of the tree on top of the car always makes me smile.

We decorated the tree with ornaments from years past. It is a very kid-friendly tree and the boys love looking at the ornaments they made "when they were little."

We set up the train this year too. I don't know if we've had it out at this house yet. The boys love it!

On Saturday morning, we went down to Jones Hall with Gramma and Grampa to see the annual Christmas concert. Christmas music always gets you in the Christmas spirit!

This year's theme was Hip Hoppin' Nutcracker and, as always, it was so much fun!

We got there just as the doors opened at 9 am.

There is always a gingerbread house in the lobby

and a craft!  This year, they made snowman door hangers and both boys made their snowmen upside down.

This is Will's poor fallen snowman! 

After lunch at Mai's, we came home to work on gingerbread houses. Henry and I bought a gingerbread village kit at Target for $8. The houses don't look all that great, but they actually taste pretty good, and that's all the boys really care about.

On Sunday, we dropped off gifts for the giving tree at church and we finally bought our own nativity scene.

There is a group from Bethlehem that comes to our church every year selling creches, crosses and other items hand carved out of olive wood.

I love our nativity scene because it is beautiful and the boys can move the figures around without hurting anything. When you turn the star at the top, it plays Christmas music.

And finally we ended our weekend with a movie. We watched The Polar Express and enjoyed some amazingly delicious Parmesan popcorn.

All our decor and outings are fun, but as Santa said in The Polar Express, "Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart."