Our Christmas Tree

It is HUGE!

The second Chris got the tree into the tree stand I knew it was too big! We had gone too big once again (we had the same problem last year!) even though the whole time we were out at the tree farm I kept telling everyone we needed to think skinny.

We cut the twine off the tree and as the branches burst out the tree almost filled the whole room!

Here is Sam's expression when she saw it put up with the lights on!

Then we got busy decorating and getting ornaments to the top meant a ladder or Sam using Chris as a ladder.

Yes, Sam is sitting on his head!

Because of the size of our rooms and where the tree is placed I can't even find a spot to stand where I can get the whole tree in one picture from top to bottom! You will just have to stop by for a visit if you want to see the whole tree in all its glory.

hunting for the perfect tree

When Chris and I were first engaged and living in a small apartment together I discovered the joy of cutting down our own Christmas tree. We went on Thanksgiving weekend with his whole extended family to the tree lot and each household found, cut down, hauled out and straped to their car the perfect tree. I LOVED it! The landscape was beautiful, it was great family fun and it seemed like each tree just got better than the next until you finally decided you were far enough away from the car and you better pick one!

Chris and I don't go to the same tree lot anymore and have not been able to cut down a tree with his extended family for a few years. But we have continued to cut down our own Christmas tree every year. Having the girls has only made this tradition more fun!

Inspecting the a potential tree.

Then watching Chris cut it down.

And having Chris turn into the TREE MONSTER!

The girls got pretty tired this year because we seemed to walk every inch of the tree farm before we found one we could all agree on but overall it was a great time!

And transforming that tree into OUR Christmas tree was even more fun! Stay tuned...

christmas is coming

While we were on our vacation in Cabo Christmas got started with the beginning of advent! I actually took our advent calendar in our suitcase so that we wouldn't be behind when we got home. We are doing an activity advent calendar this year that has us doing something different each day to get us in the Christmas spirit.

Day 1 - we read the story "In the Stable Where Jesus Was Born" (yes, I packed that in my suitcase too!)

Day 2 - Sam wrote her letter to Santa.

Day 3 - the girls recieved their felt christmas trees! I am super proud of this project and wanted to share this one with you in more detail!

Here are the finished bags. One for each girls with the initial on it!

Inside each bag is a big green felt Christmas tree and then a whole bunch of different colored ornaments to use to decorate the tree.

The girls are loving these felt Christmas trees. I gave them to them on the third day of advent so that they could practice decorating a Christmas tree before we got home and put up our real Christmas tree.

The only supplies I needed to make these were felt, a big red button, scissors and cookie cutters. I used the cookie cutters to trace the shapes for the ornaments. I drew the trees free hand (which is why there isn't an up close picture of that because they are not exactly perfect! ha). Then I made the simple felt bags for each girl to put the tree and ornaments in. I hand sewed the bags, cut a slit for the button and then used yarn to make the initial.

The whole project took me a couple of hours to make both of them and it was very inexpensive! Love this project!!

Happy Advent!

catching up!

We are in full holiday spirit swing at this house! And I am loving how "into" all the holiday happenings my girls are getting. Which means I have LOTS to share!

I am going to try do a lot of posts the next couple of days to get us caught up.

First off I wanted to share some pics from our recent Thanksgiving trip to Cabo with the Enlund family. We were all horrible at taking pictures while we were there and didn't do any real family photos. Which is such a shame because we are not all in the same place very often. But I have some fun candid shots!

We had a great trip! The girls were actually pretty easy as long as they could be in the pool with lots of toys. I had a ton of time to read and get a good tan and Chris got to play four rounds of golf with his family. And it was SO great to get to spend so much time with our newest cousin. I loved the chances that I got to kidnap him from his parents early in the morning and let him play with his cousins and give his mom and dad a break!

For more stories about the boat rides that we went on and other parts of the trip head over to Greening Sam and Avery. Sorry for the lack of stories here but blogging the same thing twice just seems silly!