The good ol' tree

We put up our tree at the beginning of December.

Putting on the star

If you happen to notice clumped ornaments...my kids do not seem to understand the concept of spreading the wealth around.  When they put the candy canes on - Peter hung them all on the same branch.  When Rebekah was old enough to help us with the tree (and arrange the tree herself), the clumping bothered William.  He was rather anal about making sure there was even coverage.  Rebekah would come by and rearrange things and then he would come by and put them back.  It was kinda fun to watch.  But - he has calmed down on this and doesn't worry about it anymore. 

Da tree

(We forgot to put tinsel on this year...ah well!)

The bear towards the bottom is not really an ornament...but because he happens to have a string attached to his head the kids believe he belongs on the tree.

Some cute kids

The kids had a blast putting up Christmas decorations...of course.  And there isn't really a whole lot to tell.  SO - I thought I'd tell a few stories about some of the ornaments.We love "A Christmas Story", so when we ran across this ornament it was a must have.  This year, Peter has been fascinated with it.  He keeps pointing to it and asking us why there is a shoe on the lamp...yeah I dunno buddy.  Maybe because it goes on the end of a leg? LOL  (He points to the shoe itself too!)  

Cardinals remind me of my beloved grandmother. She passed away when I was small, but they will forever remind me of her because of her love for them.  I have a fondness myself for the birds, but not quite like she had.  (Fact:  The cardinal is the West Virginia state bird.  This has a lot to do with why she loved them as she loved West Virginia itself.  Her favorite tree was the state tree and I can't recall the type at the moment. I want to say dogwood...)

I love ornaments and I love all types.  Normally we each pick out a new one for the tree each year...but this year the selection has just plain sucked.  Usually between Target and WalMart there is a decent selection.  It seems like one of the stores always sucks and the other is excellent and there is no pattern from year to year.  This year both stores sucked big time.  We did get a baby's first Christmas (which I will highlight in another post if I remember) and our yearly year ornament (we always get one with the year on it).  But beyond that, we bought just the one this year.

Rebekah has been a bit K-State obsessed lately.  We have some friends who are fans and the school colors do happen to be purple.  For these same reasons her favorite NFL team happens to be the Vikings.  I saw this on sale and went ahead and bought it for her in mind. She does love it. 

Both kids play with the ornaments all the time, so I had to make a new rule...whenever they can play with the ornaments, but they MUST put them back on the tree when done.  I was finding them all over the house and that simply is not cool.

Christmas is almost here!  I will be sad to see my tree go - but happy to put my living room back!