decking the halls.

finally!  moving on to christmas posts!

pretty much as soon as the last bite of thanksgiving dinner was eaten, mikey asked when we were going to get our christmas tree and decorate the house.

he’s down with doing holidays in order and doesn’t get why stores put up their christmas stuff when we’re still shopping for halloween costumes.  but he figures it’s all fair game once that turkey leg is put down.

in years past, we’ve always tried to get a tree sometime during the thanksgiving weekend.  unfortunately for this year, phil had to work nights for most of the weekend and was simply too tired to do it.  so we decided we’d get the tree the next weekend.

and to mikey, this meant that we were the Very Last Family to get a tree.  he got more and more antsy during the week whenever he’d see a house with lights up or a balloon santa sitting on a motorcycle on someone’s lawn.

he was so worried about being the only family with no decorations up that he took matters into his own hands.  one afternoon, he and his kid sister got out the markers and drew tiny little colored balls on paper, cut them out, and taped each one on our staircase banister.  definitely cute, but not quite the festive look he was hoping for, i think.

suffice it to say, it was an exceptionally looong week in the life of our resident seven-year-old. 

but!  all good things come to those who wait, and finally, a whole week after thanksgiving weekend, we set out on our annual tree expedition.

we stopped first at our local bakery to fortify ourselves for the task that lay ahead.

unfortunately, they weren’t open yet.

but the waiting paid off and we decided that today was a day when chocolate for breakfast was completely in order.

i only have two words for these macaroons.  OH and MY.

only when we were adequately sugared up were we truly ready for the great tree hunting expedition of 2011.

after much toil and drama (not really), we tsais found our perfect christmas tree.

and here it is…

behold!  we saw and we conquered!  at home depot!

mikey’s initial reaction was, “are you being serious?”  but he fully embraced the wonder of our christmas tree by the time we were in line to purchase it.  not exactly sure what brought him around, but i’m guessing it was the rationale that a tiny tree was better than no tree at all.

and so, with the tree expedition complete, my little troops headed back for home.  (not having to tie the tree to the top of our van this year because it fit in our truck = bonus high fives between the parents.)

that evening, it was time to trim the tree.

and deck the halls.

we didn’t get to hang all our ornaments this year, but we did make sure to hang the important ones!

we opted for a tiny tree to put on top of an end table instead of giving up living room space that’s already tight to begin with.  the kids still had a great time hanging ornaments just the same.

but for some reason, phil is never in a really great mood on tree decorating night.  this is his reaction when asked what he’s got against christmas.  scrooge.

bah humbug mood aside, he’s still really good about untangling the hooks and handing ornaments off to small children to hang on the tree.

the decorating was left entirely to the kids.

they loved it.

i love her.

and him too.

ok, and her too.

alright, alright, and the baby too.  but he was napping so no pictures of him.

even though the tree was tiny, our girl couldn’t quite get the star on top.

so big brother had to step in and set it on.

with some help straightening from daddy.

i hope he never gets too old to love christmas decorating.

no fireplace mantel this year, but a staircase works just as well for hanging stockings.

baby jonah’s first christmas.  🙂

the finished masterpiece!

nevermind that the ornaments were not very evenly distributed.

and happy, cheesy smiles to wish you and yours a very merry christmas!