And The Stockings Were Hung...

Or in our case, the stockings were gently laid on the floor (I've seen what a stocking holder does to a little girl's head).

Tonight we decorated the Christmas tree.


Before picture!

Christmas is Chad's favorite holiday, geez I wonder why?? Could be he loves snow, loves cold weather, loves to give people gifts, loves to eat fudge and all kinds of good food, and his birthday is December 31st.

Tradition (can you call it a tradition if it's only been 9 years now?) would have it that we braved the cold weather (with Chad's brother Jeremy and his girlfriend Beth) to find the perfect Christmas tree. We ate our candy canes as the nice gentlemen tied it to the top of our car. We drove home singing Christmas Carols. We watched Chad wrestle with the tree and get it inside. The cat ran upstairs to hide from the big "monster" in the family room for the next 25 days. I put on the lights (thanks to some great teachings from Jura), add some ribbon, and then let the kids go crazy with the ornaments. Campbell ran around like a wild child. Cooper was determined to make things look great. Chad supervised. Finally an hour later, Chad put on the topper (which is always crooked-because of a design error) and I put on the tree skirt and lay the stockings out.





I have to say I LOVE my Christmas tree skirt. My very talented sister made it for me last year (I didn't even know she remembered my comment about always wanting a personalized tree skirt, but she did). I love personalized items, I'm not sure why because I have a very common name. But I love to get things for the girls with their name on it. It makes it seem more important. I know they'll always have that item and cherish it, or at least that's what I like to think.



Colgin's Tree.

Anyhow, Christmas is sad too, because I miss Colgin. But I love to hear Cooper talk about him and tell Campbell about him. One day she too will be talking about her big brother up in Heaven. I'm glad they like to include him on things. And during this time of year we get to light up Colgin's special Christmas tree and don't have to explain to everyone why we have a Christmas tree up in our dining room all year long.



After picture!

Now, it's time to get the girls to bed, clean up, do some more housework and get some sleep. I know it's been awhile since I posted (yes Kris I too haven't written much), but we've been out of town, busy, and I'm a little leary about uploading pics to my computer, since my old profile had an error and I've had to start everything over again. But I promise to do some updating soon, so look for those coming.