Deck the Halls - Part 1

The kids were begging us by the third week of November to put out the Christmas decorations and decorate the tree.  We started listening to Christmas music then, but managed to delay the decorating part until the first day of December.  We put out some cookies and chocolate and egg nog, invited my parents over to participate, turned on the music, and we decorated!

It's nice being the parents of kids who are a wee bit older (5, 7, and 8).  The older two, in particular, were able to do lots of the work...though they would never call it work!  It's the first time in many years that I haven't been the one to string the lights on the tree  (even Lizzie got into this action with Geoff's help), or hand out the ornaments for hanging (my Dad did that job with the kids this year).

Granted, the concentration of ornaments on the finished tree look considerably skewed towards the bottom foot of the tree, but who cares??  I could care less about having the perfect looking tree...in fact, the tree itself this year is a little on the Charlie-Brown-scrawny-looking side of things!  What-ever.

This year, I got to focus my attentions on decorating the mantle with those lovely new stockings, garland, lights, and carollers.  I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.  It was really a lovely experience all 'round.