Christmas time is here

I know that some people feel like right after Thanksgiving is a little too early to celebrate Christmas, but I was definitely into starting early this year. Besides, in the Philippines, the people start celebrating Christmas as soon as the months start ending in "ber" (SeptemBER), so late November doesn't seem too early. When we got back from the Farmer's after Thanksgiving Mary set up the Christmas tree while Nathan napped, Sarah played and I cleaned up the house and did the annual fun task of figuring out Christmas lights. My task was frustrating, but I was glad that we didn't set up the tree together, because we both have opinions about how it should be done (mine - let's get this thing up, Mary's - go slowly, make sure each branch is just right... very particular). Even though we were both frustrated at times this year, neither of us was frustrated at each other. A significant improvement over previous years.




Nathan and Sarah loved putting up the ornaments. This was the first time Nathan got to experience it, so he had a lot of fun. If left to his own devices, he is much like his father: get the things in the general area and go get some more... move, move, move! He would just get an ornament, run stick it deep inside the tree area, let go and run for another. Fortunately Daddy was there to teach him the finer arts of ornament hanging and Mommy was there to rehang them once Daddy and Nathan had gone for their next ornament. Nathan was really cute and just so excited. Sarah loved it and was so excited to hang the ornaments in particular places and was very picky about which ornaments she got to hang. We have really enjoyed having Christmas music on the last couple of days. The results are below, though the tree does look a little crooked, which Mary has fixed I believe.


After we got the Christmas tree set up I got to go out and put up our Christmas lights on the house. I had my staple gun and was ready to get the job done, but was happily surprised to find out that a previous owner of our house had installed clips for the Christmas light (a nice benefit of a pre-owned house)! It was my first time, so it still took a little figuring out, but I was done in less than an hour and the results are pretty good. I was proud of myself and Nathan and Sarah were excited to go out after dinner that night and see them lit for the first time. It was a lot of fun!