Getting Christmasy

Early last week we put up our Christmas tree and other indoor decorations. It was nice to have Chris here to help get all the boxes out of the attic. I don't know how I'm going to get them back up there again! The boys had a blast even though they only got to decorate the bottom half of the tree. They were extra excited because Grandma left Christmas presents when she was here at Thanksgiving so the tree didn't have to sit there empty.

The little tree is all mine. It's not super little I guess, maybe 4 feet but it's only in two pieces so it's really easy to set up. I got it one year when Chris was deployed at Christmas and I was going to visit him over Christmas so there was no point in getting everything out. I decided that year to make it a patriotic themed tree. It has blue lights, a red tree skirt, all red, white, and blue ornaments, and then hubby is the star on the top in his uniform. I love it! I always seemed to have a perfect spot for it too until this year. This year we purchased a bench for our entryway which is exactly where this tree went for the last two years. I did find a fairly suitable spot though, in my dining room. Now I'm thinking that if it stays there next year the theme might have to change to a cooking/baking theme. That could be fun. I love it as is though......decisions, decisions.

This morning we squeezed in one last fun holiday event before taking Chris to the airport this evening. I decided to try gingerbread houses with the boys. I bought the pre-cooked, ready to decorate kind. The particular box I got had 5 little houses to make a village instead of one big house. I figured this way everyone could have their own and it would cut down on fighting. This is the first time I've ever made gingerbread houses. It was harder than it looked! Since the box had so many little houses in it Chris couldn't figure out which pieces went with which houses. We only ended up making four of them because we didn't have enough pieces left over for the last one! Alex was the first one done. There was no messing around for him. I put icing where he wanted, he stuck some candy on and was gone to play or watch t.v. Zachary on the other hand......he loved it. He kept wanting to ad more and more. Then he wanted to help daddy with his and help me with mine. Not to mention the fact that he probably ate twice as much candy and frosting as was on his little house. (We did supplement the candy that was included with some of our own. If you notice the teddy grahams at the front of the houses, that's ours too!)




None of us were that great at it. It's hard to tell which ones are the kids and which are the adults!