Decorating

So here is our Christmas tree all done up. I prefer a blue and silver theme and it works in our living room. The kids only help with the ornaments and I put everything on the night before when they're in bed so I can just get it done.



When the Christmas boxes come down from the attic the kids like to go through everything and put stuff up on the mantel which I allow them to do. I put our Christmas cards at the back of the mantel. They like to talk about the items they remember and also try to remember where it goes. I remember doing that as a kid especially with the ornaments on the tree mine always went top middle of the tree and it still does today at our house.

The most special of all our Christmas decorations is the nativity. The kids have been interested even more than usual this year. We had one night when each of the kids wanted to hold and look at each piece. I took the pieces down one at a time and let each child hold the piece and then we passed them around. They liked baby jesus best. Meghan held him and rocked him and then put him in his manger. Lennon took baby Jesus and put him in Mary's arms which I thought was sweet. I was a little nervous about it though but I held back. I don't want this set broken! It's a pretty good one from Costco but they haven't had the same one since. I really like the angel because it isn't hanging on the stable and she is pretty.

The one item I didn't take a picture of is our advent calendar it is this awesome wooden house with little doors with plenty of room to fit candy in. I got that at Costco too it is super cute. Each night one of the kids opens the door and passes out a piece of candy to the other kids. I tried to start with whoever opens the door that night gets the candy but it was "no fair" according to the other kids not getting a candy so I put 3 pieces of candy in each so everyone can have one. They like counting how many doors are open and how many they have left. Just in case you are wondering we have 17 doors opened and there are 7 left (it goes to the 24th).