Deck the Hall's

The day we decorate for Christmas has become one of my favorite days each year with kids.  We blast Christmas music, stay in our pajamas, make cookies, dance around, and play with the Christmas decor.  We are reminded by the decorations what Christmas is really about, and I see the magic come alive in the kids.  I always become sentimental this day, thinking of when I was little.  The Christmas' with my parents, celebrating at our Grandmas/Grandpas houses in Lubbock, calling our Cousins to share what we got, and just the feeling of pure JOY in our hearts...like we were on top of the world.  What a true magic that is.  The magic of BELIEVING in things.  Believing in the Christmas story and the birth of such a special baby.  Believing in family and love.  This truly is just a MAGICAL time, and to see my children light up with this same kind of joy is something I will never forget!
So, we decked the Hall's with 2 trees and lots of fun items.  Caelin enjoyed all the stuffed animals we have collected over the years, and Cade enjoyed seeing the nutcrackers and our train set again, although somewhat broken and missing a track now.  :)  I release my OCD tendencies, and allow the kids to decorate with some things however they want.  SO, we might have the train in the middle of the living room for the month, and Caelin has dedicated an entire couch to the animals now.  It is beautiful and perfect to me!  Caelin and I also talked about the nativity set and she sweetly picked up the baby Jesus and took him to her room to rock him and lay him down for a nap.  When it came time to do the tree, Cade helped Daddy put the tree together and get the lights working.  Then, us girls jumped in and we all decorated the tree with ornaments.  The baby ornaments for everyone are hung high up on the tree, our favorite ornaments and hung high as well.  Breakable ornaments are hung by Charles/I up high (we learned our lesson a long time ago), and all the nonbreakable ornaments are left for the kids to do wherever they can reach.  Caelin put the angel on the small tree this year and Cade did the big tree Angel.  Once all the decorating was complete, we made dinner and settled in to have a movie night with cocoa/popcorn and all the classic shows.  We watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Hoops/Yoyo, and Elf on the Shelf.  More to come later on our Elf, Jingle!  It was a fantastic day filled with so many memories and family fun!