Holiday decorating - from beginning to end

First things first, Michael and I gathered the Christmas decor from the attic and then Michael set up the tree with the coaching of his little princesses of course. Then my two beauties helped me to decorate the tree with the various  ornaments. I can't tell you how many times the girls thought that it was fun to put the hooks on their ears as earrings and launch the colored balls bouncing on the tile down the middle of the house. Thank goodness for non-breakable plastic replacing my glass ornaments from the before-children era.

Perhaps it was because I had the girls help with the decorating or perhaps it's just their age but I couldn't keep them away from the ornaments on the tree. This makes for adorable pictures like the one of Lexi below but it also made for much aggravation as I constantly asked the girls to walk away from the tree.

 

One of the girls favorite decorations was a cute little nativity ornament and/or display set that my Mom sent for them. I knew it would be an issue if the characters were on the tree so I kept it out for display on the book shelf. They would put the box/manger on the floor and play together (usually nicely) with the various characters. I was able to tell them about the reason for the season and explain every-ones roles, many times as I played along. It was fun to hear them talk about baby Jesus and identify the others even when they would see a nativity somewhere else.

 

Just like last year I wrapped the majority of the doors in our home with wrapping paper and tied bows around 'em to resemble great big presents. This was a bit more time consuming/demanding this year it seemed but I did get it done and it contributed quite a bit to a festive feel in our home. Both girls enjoyed all of the decorative gifts on the walls and the doors. And they did great about leaving the paper up through the holiday season. Then on Dec 27th, Savannah said "I wanna open more presents Mommy." I know that she really was interested in more gifts and the fun of getting more new treasures but I played it up that she could unwrap the really big presents - the doors. And so the removal of Christmas decor began.

 

She was a great helper as you can see and the girls enjoyed having a paper snowball fight with Mommy after all of the used gift wrap was balled up.  I think part of what makes this season so fun is that there is a focus on fun and being with family. For various reasons this was really one of my favorite Christmases of my adult life. There's just something magical about the season when you're making it fun for little ones.