It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Because we were in Seattle the first weekend of December, (I was photographing a wedding!) we didn't get our tree until this past weekend. Christmas is officially here in our house and I have to admit that even though there is a tree and decorations, I'm a big Bah-humbug this year... It could be the stress of traveling from place to place with a newborn knowing that it's all going to screw up his sleep and schedule. It could be that it's just more stressful this year than it has in the past. Or maybe the Christmas spirit just hasn't caught up with me. Either way, I'm not quite there in spirit yet. But we have our tree and that's helping a little.

Emma, Micaiah and Mommy at the tree farm

It was fun taking Emma to pick out our tree. She's old enough to know what it's for and that she gets to help pick it and decorate it. She had a great time looking at all of the trees and trying to convince Nathan what kind we needed. It didn't take much searching to find a nice Douglas Fir to bring home. Of course, it's quite easy to pick a good tree when they all look full and healthy. Seriously, this tree far was the best farm tree-wise. They were full, healthy trees...

Daddy and Emma with the tree!

All of us with our tree! Note all of the beautiful ones behind us...

Back in the good ol' days, my dad used to make us take turns from time to time using the saw to cut down the tree, but here in Eugene, people are lazy and the tree-farm workers use a chainsaw and cut those suckers down in less than ten seconds! I'm not really complaining though because we all know that I'm not getting down on the cold, wet dirt unless I have to... Emma's a little too young to help with that part, so Nathan would be the one to have to do it and I think he is a little relieved that they cut it down for us so he didn't have to get dirty either, but don't tell him I said that...

The kids have both caught little colds, so Sunday, we stayed home to let them rest and decorate the tree. Emma pulled out ALL of the red and silver ball ornaments and hung about 6-8 in the same six inches of tree. We helped her out after a bit, but it was funny to watch her put them up. She's so proud of her tree and how pretty it looks.

She even got to put the star on top!

Now that the tree is up, we like to turn the lights on all afternoon :-) It's fun to see the twinkling lights, especially when it gets dark. It's nice to watch movies or listen to music with just the lights on the tree on, it's relaxing. I almost wish I could put the Christmas lights all over the house and leave them all year long. It seems a little high school/college dorm room-ish to do though. So I'll fight my inner teenager and keep them off the walls except at Christmas.