Getting Ready for Christmas

We are getting ready for Christmas around here, though to be honest, I am not really sure where November went.  

We got our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. The trees had just arrived at the Kroger lot that morning and weren't even unwrapped yet!

We got an extra-big tree this year.

And found our nativity set that we got at church last year.  

Olive wood, made in Bethlehem. I love it!

Then we got down to the business of decorating the tree.

My favorite ornament is this angel that I got when I was one.

Two days after we got our tree, it fell! We only lost a few ornaments (my angel was safe!) but we spent quite a bit a time sopping up water, righting the tree, vacuuming up broken glass, and putting sandbags on the tree stand so it won't topple over again.

Ornament-less tree, ready to re-decorate! (If you look closely, you can see Weezie sleeping under the tree!)

In happier news, Frosty the elf is back this year and is getting into everything. One morning, we found that he had gotten into the nuts on Gene's bar.

Another morning he built an airplane out of Legos.

Now Frosty is flying his airplane all around the house. He even helped us decorate the tree!

Last Monday, we went to our little city's Christmas tree lighting. We'd never been before but it was a lot of fun! We saw two of Santa's reindeer.

The boys drank hot cocoa, decorated cookies and gobbled them up. 

West U's huge tree!

 We've got more Christmas fun planned in the coming weeks: breakfast with Santa at church, the annual children's Christmas concert at the symphony, holiday parties at school, Zoo Lights and a ride on the Polar Express. I just love this month and all the excitement leading up to Christmas!