Decorating for Christmas

We came back from San Antonio and decorated for Christmas. My lovely husband had gotten all the decorations down from the attic in the few days he had to himself. He also put up our tree (but didn't decorate it) and put up the stockings. He's a keeper!!

The girls have their own small tree that gets all the non-breakable ornaments on it. This way, they leave MY tree alone. This worked well (in theory and in practice) until this year. Jordan is something else! (Side note: We lost 3 ornaments this year. Jordan was responsible for 2 and I, sadly, am responsible for the last one).

The girls LOVED putting up their tree.

They loved putting up their nativity scene.

Jordan liked hanging ornaments (Allison was obsessed with the nativity for the remainder of this process).

We did manage to have her help a little.

"The stockings were hung, by the chimney with care" (You'll notice that we all have beautiful handmade stockings courtesy of my mom. Except for Jordan. Brianne finally got her stocking this year, so Jordan should get hers next year. I'm not complaining because these are a PAIN to make. I know, I tried to make mine. Mom had to finish it).

Allison was very upset that the trees didn't have their stars.

So she and Jordan got to put them on!

This picture is mainly for my mom and her sisters. These are the presents from Grandma Dolly's (my grandma, their mom) sled. My grandfather made the sled and she wrapped these little gifts to put in it. I can very vividly remember playing with it as a child. Somehow, I was granted possession of the sled and gifts. I decided this year to re-wrap the presents. But I couldn't bring myself to unwrap the original paper. SO, there may be treasures unknown in these little boxes, but now we'll never know! : )

And the sled is in BAD shape. So my father-in-law made me a new one (this is a picture of the old sled). I'll have pictures of the new sled/gifts next year.

And just so everyone is clear and no one has a fit, I have NO intention of getting rid of the old one. It will be boxed up and placed carefully with all of my other Christmas decorations. I just wanted the girls to have memories like mine and there was NO way they could play with this one.