On to Decorating

The kids love decorating the tree although many of the ornaments end up all over the house eventually.  They never really stay on the tree even though that’s where they started. Anna loves watching all the action.

   

This kid here is one of the reasons that ornaments don’t stay on the tree.

We have a pre-lit Christmas tree which I love for different lighting!

We didn’t decorate just the tree.  For some reason Jared didn’t want to put lights up on the outside of our house, so we decided to do up the inside.  :)

Rebecca was really into decorating.  She loves that kind of stuff.  I’m not really any good at it so maybe that’ll be her new job every year or season.

Jared got tired of putting up lights and tried to hide the rest of them.  He thought there was enough.  I said, “No way.”  He took over the camera and Rebecca and I kept going with the lights.

Here is our tree very early in the morning as the sun is just coming up.  I love it!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

We couldn’t put it off any longer.  Everyday the kids would ask when we are going to put the tree up.  It became a two day process, not that we were planning it that way though.

This is how our tree comes.  I think our first year in Colorado we tried to get a real tree.   Many of the trees that Jared looked at were dried out and too many of the needles had already fallen off.  Trees don’t last around here.  It is extremely dry, so the trees need lots and lots of water.  I also have a bad track record with plants.  They don’t really like me since I forget to give them water.  Hence, the move to an artificial tree.

 

It’s quite the process just getting the tree put together and finding all the switches and plug ins.  I even forgot to “fluff” the tree this year.  No one’s complaining though, so I guess it’s okay.

I tried to get group photos again.  David’s not too interested.  He’s winding things up to find his next victim.

By this photo, Rachel was done posing and sitting around.

Like I said, tree and house decorating was a two day process.  The first day all we did was get the tree out and up.  Decorations were day two.

Cookies-Day 2

Have you ever baked cookies with 13 kids ages 8 and under? It's a lot of fun. You should try it. Our kids a blast. Just check out the photos.

Look, even David tried to get in on the action.

Elizabeth was just an observer this time. Maybe next year.

The older girls did great! I think they had the most fun. They were pretty helpful.

This is what it looked like when the kids decided they were done decorating. Little kids table.

Bigger kids table. Can you imagine what my floor looks like? I forgot that picture.

The cookies look pretty though, don't they? There is enough sugar on some of them to last to the new year!

Time for a lunch break! That was a lot of hard work you know.

The older girls couldn't get enough. I think they could have baked all day long. Oh, wait. We did.

Some of our finished products! That's not even close to everything we made.