It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We ventured out to "pick" our Christmas tree on Friday afternoon. Karlee loved running through all the trees and finally settled on the perfect one. We went smaller than usual this year because I'm very afraid wild child #2 is going to pull it over on top of her before December 25.

We came home and put the girls down for a nap while Chip and I got the tree set up and ready to decorate. When they woke, a special visitor had arrived.




Mr. Sprinkles was waiting outside the door with a package. He made his annual delivery of the box of special ornaments for Karlee and Madelyn to hang on the tree. Karlee was so excited looking through the box and hearing me tell her what the ornament represents.



Chip and I strung the lights while Karlee kept asking if it was time to put the ornaments on yet. It was so much fun to see how excited she was to decorate for Christmas this year. She's really gotten into it all. We let Madelyn get into the bag with the plastic ornaments so she could help also.






I really love our Christmas tree. It's not fancy or any kind of theme. It's almost like a story of our life. I have an ornament that was given to my family when I was young from an elderly lady that lived up the street from us on Clearmont Street named Ms. McCollum. I have ornaments from the year I bought my first home in college and had my very first Christmas tree of my own. I have special ornaments that Chip's Granny hand-made and gave me at a Christmas shower before we were married. She passed away the year after we were married. Of course I have "Our First Christmas Together" from 2002 when Chip and I got married and baby's first Christmas for both the girls. I have a picture ornament of Karlee from each Christmas and one for Madelyn from last year (this year hasn't been made yet!). All the handmade ornaments that Karlee made at Parkway were hung by her this year. Besides the plastic balls (replaced the glass ones this year because of wild child #2!), every ornament on our tree has a story with it. I hope to pass these along to the girls one day and hope they carry the stories along with them. Pulling out all the ornaments is one of the most special times of the Christmas season for me.



The picture above was about half way through. I didn't get a finished version photo because I had my hands full keeping Madelyn from trying to get in the tree! Separate post about this adventure coming later!!