Christmas Tree & Other Decorations

We went on our pilgrimage down the road to Westlake to pick out a Christmas tree again this year. It was cold then (a couple of days after Thanksgiving - but it's warmish now - a couple of days after New Year's.)

It was also snowing the biggest, clearest snowflakes I had ever seen in my entire life! Look at this one on my glove -- not even the best one!

We also cut out snowflakes one of the days the kids were home from school and then they brought home a couple more from school to add to the collection. 

At first, Sam wanted to put the tree in the van, but I convinced him to strap it on top and drive slowly home.

Looks pretty secure to me!

And here is a photo of the finished product (from Christmas morning).

And some of the rest of the decorations (this picture's from Christmas Eve). Sam took the lights down from the front of the house on the 1st, since it was nice outside and he was off work. I finished packing up all of the rest of the ornaments and everything yesterday.

The big kids have been rearranging the NOEL candles around to say "Lone" and "Leon." And don't worry, Leah has an "L" stocking on the other side of the fireplace.

Leah's enamored of the larger-than-her nutcracker - all the kids like him (for some reason this looks like a cardboard cutout of James).

And here's a comparison picture of James with the nutcracker when he was three (2015):