Decorating the tree

This past Tuesday, Cary picked out a gorgeous tree from a feed store in Brainerd, and we spent the evening decorating it and the rest of the house. The tree is HUGE, stands 8 1/2 to 9 feet tall and looks beautiful in the living room.

Here it is with the lights and the angel, before we added the ornaments...

Ornament time!


A close up - ooooohhhhh, pretty...Brendan had a blast helping us decorate; Halle, on the other hand was terrified. Here is a picture (sorry it's so dark) of her crying as we carried the tree into the house...
And, while we were decorating, she retreated to her bedroom and sat on Brendan's bed.

I finally made her laugh, however, but if you look at her eyes they are still shimmering with tears. Goofy kid. She got over it after awhile, and is ok with the tree being in the living room now.

Every year Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Charlie make each and every one of us our very own wooden decorative "placecard" -- they are always so cute, and it's so much fun to take them out each Christmas and use them in the decorating - here is a picture of the various ones from over the past several years... I wonder what this years will be??

Just wanted to share a couple of my favorite memories from the night:

*Brendan, wearing a stocking on each hand proclaiming, "Mama, I'm wearing Santa's gloves!"

*Halle refusing to walk into the living room and past the big, bad tree. She stood on the edge of the carpet and cried and cried.

*Hearing Brendan in his bedroom comforting Halle while we were in the living room, "Hawee, it's ok, it's only a tree."

*Brendan and I's conversation when we found the plate we use to put out the cookies for Santa:

Brendan: What's that, Mama?

Me: It's a plate we put cookies on on Christmas Eve, so Santa can have a snack when he stops by the house.

Brendan: Does Santa like cookies?

Me: Yes, and he also likes milk.

Brendan: And he also likes meatloaf. Santa really likes meatloaf.

So this year we'll probably be setting out milk, cookies, and meatloaf!