Christmas Decorating

After we got back from getting our Christmas tree we got busy getting out our Christmas decorations. The girls (and I) climbed onto the back of the truck for a ride out to the barn.

Do you see all the crap in the back? That is ALL Christmas stuff!! (The truck isn't full, but it is still a crazy amount of stuff!) There was so much crap, I had to walk behind the truck on the way back!

The girls grabbed this sleigh bell thing and started playing reindeer and driver!

I got to work switching out my fall stuff for Christmas stuff. My wreath is pretty sad looking... especially after my fall wreath! Anyone have any suggestions for perking it up? It also looks really small compared to the fall one... can't do much about that though.

What do you think? Is the garland too much? I put it up, but haven't actually seen it from farther back yet. We still don't have porch stairs yet (not that they would do much good since that side of the house is gutted still!), so if I wanted to see it I would have had to go back into the old house, walk through the studs into the play room, move the drop cloth and plastic to the side so I could climb over the baby gate into the kitchen, go out into the garage go down the stairs and walk to the front of the house! I didn't really feel like doing all of that, and I forgot to today!

I don't think this is going to fit in my wreath box.

According to the box it can hold up to a 24" wreath. According to the tag on the grapevine it is a 24" wreath. Humm? I wonder if they make larger wreath boxes? I might be havin' to get me one of those!

See ALL these boxes?

And these too? This is all my Christmas crap! And you know what? MOST of it is just that, crap! I pulled out every Christmas box I had so I could organize them better and hopefully get rid of stuff too. I haven't had all my stuff out since we moved to the teeny tiny house, I can't believe how tacky my taste was before! Oh my!!

My fall stuff all packed up! Sniff, sniff.

What do I do with this? I used to put it out. I don't really do door hangers...

...and lets add the fact that Deric's mom made it for him and his EX-GIRLFRIEND! Umm, yeah! Would you put this out every year?! (Doesn't it look like the smudged name says Ben? Or is that just me?)

I would normally put out my Christmas Wreath candle. But the last time I had it burning in my bathroom someone came up to me and told me they thought the cat peed in there! After a lot of sniffing around we discovered the cat pee smell was my Christmas wreath candle! Any one want a candle?

I always put the Christmas books away every year, the girls love the new Christmas books and are so excited to get them back!

Look! It is Santa and her Reindeer... now where are those sleigh bells?

When Brody woke up from his nap the kids all watched an Elmo Christmas movie. Brody sat there so sweetly with his hands in his lap, he really loves that little monster!

Growling Saying Cheese at me.

That's all for now, I have to see if I can make some sort of miracle out of these tacky decorations!

Updated: Deric ran out (in the snow) to take a picture of the front of the house for me. What do we think?

Do we like the stuff on the door or is it too much with the other garland? They both have lights in them and hopefully Deric will get the electric out there in the next few days and we can turn them on. I plan on getting my mini trees back from my sister and those will go (with lights) on each side of the door too. I thought I had something else to put out there too, but I can't come up with it...

Christmas Tree Hunting

As tradition would have it we left yesterday morning to go hunt down the perfect tree. It was a beautiful chilly day, I am so glad it wasn't as fridgid as last year! Usually Deric leaves for hunting soon as we get home so we are often in a hurry, this year he wasn't going so we got to take our sweet time. Usually we grab breakfast at the truck stop drive through, this year we actually went in and sat down and ate!

Brody was more interested in putting his buckles on than looking at me. Safety first I guess.

Getting ready for the hayride back to the trees! Brody climbed up on the wagon and plopped right down! He was ready to go!

Brody was still sitting on the bottom of the trailer at this point, I didn't just miss him.

He decided he was done sitting here and climbed up with the uni-bomber daddy. (Go up one picture, doesn't he look like the uni-bomber? That would explain Brody's worried look!)

I had my big lens with me. I was sitting to close to get all of everyone in the frame. I think our hayride driver had been drinking or something, we were flying through the field at crazy fast speeds, I wasn't about to try to move!

Running through the trees, trying to be the first to find THE ONE.

Things were a little tricky with stumps hiding everywhere, and crazy underbrush.

I actually went to take a picture of him tromping through the weeds and one caught him and I caught him going down! He-hee, I couldn't resist posting it!

Looking at the mess on his gloves, he actually stood there flapping his hands and picking the junk off of them before he moved on.

It's no wonder he tripped, look at his hat over his eyes! He actually liked it this way and when I would move it back, he would pull it right back down again!

This is my lens zoomed all the way out! Brody was checking things out and walked practically to the end of the field! I tried keeping up with him, but he was running I was walking...

The 'Bunny Rabbit' tree

Daddy found it, he found our tree!

So excited we found our tree!

My little cutie pie!

Getting ready to cut it down.

Watching daddy very carefully.

Timber!

Helping daddy with something or another.

Umm, yeah. We so aren't going to get a picture here! Lets go.

Pulling our tree out to the road.

Making sure the tree is still there. (Do you see it way back there? It is the green blob on the side of the road above Reyganns head.)

He still can't see!

Daddy and the kiddos

Someone offered to take our picture, so I returned the favor to them.

FINALLY we get to eat peanuts!! We didn't tell the girls where we were going till this morning, and the first thing Kylie asked was if we were going to go out for breakfast like we always did, and if we could eat peanuts!

We purchased some watery hot cocoa for the kids. Brody HAD to pour his into a different cup before he could drink it.

He is silly like that!

Yumm!

Nothing beats hot cocoa after a chilly morning!

Brody made a friend while we were eating peanuts and waiting for our tree to come in from the field.

What a goober!

Doesn't he look really silly here? His eyes are open a little and his lips are all poochy! He-hee! He fell asleep in no time, it must have been all that running around. (Do you see his coloring book? The tree farm was giving them to all the kids, it's about going to the farm and getting your Christmas tree. Pretty neat.)

Taking the tree off

The girls talked the WHOLE way home about wanting to watch daddy take the tree off the car. So when we got home that is just what they did!