Decorating the Tree...

And then we got to decorating; Christmas music, hot cocoa...I try hard to not get too OCD about it all :)

It's getting a little easier and quicker (and less re-arranging for Mom and Dad to do) each year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Such a fun full day. We started out with the Christmas Cafe and Fair here at the Seminary. The kids basically get to shop for ridiculously low prices, for everyone in their immediate family, while we eat snacks and socialize. It's amazing, they get to go and choose and 'buy' things with the help of another adult and it all gets to be a surprise for the rest of us, and it all happens in one morning. The staff and faculty wives buy items throughout the year for this event. Love it.

Then we headed North and got to have a quick bite of lunch with friends we don't see nearly enough, since our move.

After that, we headed up to our favorite Christmas tree farm, Celesta Farms in Sebastopol to pick out and chop down our Christmas tree, it's one of my favorite traditions. We love this place, complete with free cookies and hot drinks and reasonable prices. It really is a family affair, choosing our tree is a tricky process and we all have different ideas but we always find the perfect tree for us.

Exhausted but happy, we ended our day at Pings for Chinese Food, for dinner. There would be no cooking after that long day.

Prettying the tree

Love our nativity...the kids had fun arranging (and then I re-arranged)

Sunday was our day to decorate the tree. Normally on Sunday afternoons James and at least the two older kids, sometimes all three of them, go to the Thai Church in San Rafael, but there were big plans for that tree!

 

First things first, Daddy strung the lights

 Asia, as usual, was on hand to provide comic relief; trying on stockings, hiding in boxes, wearing the lights.

Busy little bees!

It really was a team effort.

 Arran decided, way at the start, that it would be he who placed the star on top.

 Admiring their handy work and the end result. Good work guys!

Such a fun family afternoon.

Christmas is coming

I am so far behind on my blogging. My sister has arrived and we are busy trying to get ready for Christmas. The children are all so excited to have their auntie here to visit (and at this stage, fully expect to see her at Christmas time). They are constantly asking where she is and what she is doing (even when she is in the bathroom!). They tell her she looks like me, and me that I look like her. Sometimes they pretend to get us confused, then giggle.

Last week we finally went out to buy our tree, but it was too late to decorate it that same evening, so the next day the children wanted to set to work. They were just giddy with the anticipation and excitement. I kept suggesting that we wait until daddy got home, but they were so eager to get started, that start we did...and finish!

There was a part of me that was sad that it had not been a family affair, but then James ended up having to work late into the night anyway, and they would not have lasted another day without decorating the tree. They worked so hard and really put a lot of thought and effort into it and I really did not have to do an awful lot of re-arranging so it all worked out well. James came home later that night after the children were all in bed, to a beautiful tree and all he had to do was lift it on to the table.

Not the best shots in the world, but this is our tree, before being put up on the table in the corner and having the tree skirt added...we like it. The kids LOVE it.

Now if only James could somehow find some time to put a few lights on the house!

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree...

Well it has only taken us about one week.

We finally bought our tree last Friday evening, but too late to do anything with it. Saturday the morning was hectic, just trying to get the room cleared and re-arranged a little so we could actually put the tree up. Well I then had a baby shower to attend at lunch time and got home to children begging to begin. James rounded up the tree stand, only to discover that with this tree being nine foot tall (the biggest one we have had so far) it would not fit in our little stand and we also were not sure what state last years lights were in, or if we would have enough, so off we had to head to the store.

Then it was dinner time, so we finally got the tree up and lights on it, Saturday night and left it at that. Sunday was crazy, we went from church in the morning, to James and the two older kids going to Thai Church where the kids also had their youth party. Then that evening was our church's Christmas party.

Each of the following evenings we let the children put a few decorations on the tree. It was adorable, all of the decorations were concentrated in the bottom quarter of the tree at their heights. We have gradually tried to redistribute them and I think, finally, Thursday evening, it is now finished, or at least as good as we are going to get it this year.

I took a few photos which aren't perfect. Due to the low light conditions, and not wanting to use the flash I had to use slower shutter speeds, so especially those with the kids may seem a little more blurred, but we think it looks lovely.

Asia thinks that the idea is to pull decorations off and bring them to us, so we are working on that! Bryttain is convinced it is her job to turn the lights on and off.

Of course, we still need to get the Nativities set up, wrap presents, clean, tidy...but at least headway has been made and it is starting to feel a lot more like Christmas.