Decking the Halls

We put up our Christmas tree up last night, after much anticipation from the boys.  Tommy and Ben were so excited to have Grandpa, Grandma, and Great-Grandma join us for the event.  This was the first year that they were halfway helpful putting the ornaments on the tree and seemed to understand the concepts of fragile and gentle.  They enjoyed looking at each new ornament they unwrapped from the big box and finding a place for it on the tree.

 

We have a system that seems to work for us where we place unbreakable ornaments on the bottom part of the tree (at kid-eye-level) and put the fragile ones up higher.  We also have a "one-finger" rule, which always takes a few days of heavy enforcement.

After we finished decorating the tree and drinking our warm apple cider, Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-Grandma joined us for our first Sunday of Advent celebration, with candle-lighting, songs (kid songs and traditional carols), Bible reading, and more songs.  It was amazing to have four generations of our family gathered to worship God and join in the anticipation of Christ's birth.

Flashback from December 2006