Decking The Halls

Halloween and Fall decorations eluded me this year, but Christmas will not!! I really was not sure if I was going to be able to find the time and energy to decorate for Christmas this year. The biggest obstacle was going to be getting a tree (we are hold outs on the real tree, you can't beat it!) Well, it can be accomplished, 5 small kids or not. My wonderful father stayed a couple of extra days after Thanksgiving. My brother, Jacob, helped Clint put up lights the day before Thanksgiving. This broke Clint's rule that you do not put up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving (he feels Thanksgiving deserves a fair shake) but there were going to be no lights otherwise and we had a very excited 3 year old who was already asking about lights! Clint helped me decorate the inside of the house during naptime and dad watched babies so we could take Jackson to pick out a tree, then he helped Clint get it up (whew, got out of that job this year, it's always an interesting event with some traditional spousal squabbling:). If we had not done it the weekend after Thanksgiving, it would not have happened. We have a very busy December weekend schedule!

Kicking off the holiday season with Gingerbread Man pancakes!

Jackson was priceless as we decorated this year. He ooohed and aaawed over every decoration and awoke the next morning still chattering on about all the Christmas decorations. It elicited some very excited 3 year old squealing and he showed off the decorations to everyone in the house (even though we were the ones who put the decorations up). The tree was equally as exciting, though he was not very interested in picking a tree out. He wanted to go look at the musical Santas and such, so when we would ask him, "Is this our Christmas tree?" He would answer with a dismissive,"Yes". Once the tree was home though, he was fascinated with ornaments. He loves them all and he likes to point out certain ones to people. This year's tree has the Jackson touch, there is a small section I like to call icicle corner where he placed 4 icicle ornaments all together. You gotta love having decorating help.

Jackson's very own tree

Our Christmas tree. We went with Frasier Fur this year instead of the Noble Fur. Gotta change it up once in a while.

Jackson's new ornament

Babies with their first Christmas ornaments.




























I think that this Christmas season is my favorite one so far with Jackson. He is really starting to get into it and there is nothing like the joy and awe of a small child to bring life to the season! He was so excited to start seeing Christmas light going up all over the neighborhood. Last weekend when he and I were in the car after dark, he was pointing them all out to me, then said," Look momma, there are more! (insert small happy sigh) This is so GREAT momma!" Does it get any better?! :) I can't wait to take him to see lots of Christmas lights!

He's so excited about Santa coming. Clint and I have been reminding him that he has to be good if Santa is going to visit. The other day, he was acting up and I told him that Santa was not going to bring any presents if he didn't behave and he looked over at the tree and told me, "But the presents are already under the tree." Of course those are presents from us, but why can he always come up with a rational response when he's only three?!

Mommy and Daddy's presents under the tree!

We have also been talking about the real meaning of Christmas. He knows that it is Jesus' birthday, but obviously doesn't fully understand this. I was explaining the other day how God sent Jesus to earth, to which Jackson replied," You mean from the moon?" And then he asked me why God sent Jesus and I told him to protect and save us, to which he replied," Like from dragons." There's nothing like the prespective of a 3 year old boy.

The other thing we have discussed is how not all little boys have much ar Christmas. The year he was born, we started getting an angel off the tree every year that is the same age as him. This is the first year that we have really talked about it and he is very excited to give presents to a boy without anything. Though he also wants me to give the boy some money so he can have toys:) Such sweet innocence.

I am looking forward to the rest of our holiday season! I may not get everything done that I would usually do, but we are off to a good start!