Preparing for Christmas!

I am completely months behind on my posts, so I thought I would at least take the next couple of days to catch myself up on December. . over the last days and weeks, we have been doing lots that led us up to the past few days. We always start the Advent season by putting up two Frasier Fir trees in our home. . one is always large and one is smaller. We have lots of fun doing this as a family. And it is always inevitable that the larger tree ornaments (my "fancy" ones) get broken. The kids always anticipate whom I will "fire" over the course of the decorating process. It's usually the poor soul that allows the ornaments to slip through their fingers and crash onto our hardwood floors. Ironically, it was me this year. Oh well.

I actually recorded a few moments of our hard labor that day!


The crew away at their work!

The tree above is the smaller tree we traditionally decorate in our den, our main family room. Around December 14th, I noticed it was already dead as a doornail. . I had forgotten to close the heat vent above the tree this year. So for two straight weeks, hot air had been blowing on our beloved evergreen. The next day, my sweet hubby went back to the tree farm, and they replaced our tree for free. However, that meant undecorating the tree and redecorating a new one. Thanks to M, who was already home from college, we knocked it out BY OURSELVES! The new tree below:




This is a shot of our "big" tree once it was completed. . notice the "after" shot below. It was taken weeks later once it had gotten very brittle and lots of presents underneath!



We are always very proud of our trees over the course of the Advent Season. . they represent to us a symbol of Christmas we love to look at the entire month! Now, unfortunately it is time to take them down. Brittle needles are piling up on our floors. . we will endure them a few more days then enjoy a family bonfire out back! Enjoy your trees for just a few more days!