Christmas Decorations

We made our annual pilgrimage to Ace Hardware on the day after Thanksgiving to pick out a a tree.

I think this is as good as we're going to get photo-wise.

 

 

Here's Sam loading it all up to drive very slowly home:

James refused to wear a coat (I think this was why he wasn't in the other photos - he'd already retreated to the warmth of the van & taken off his mask), though he did go in the store at the beginning & get a gumball. It was cold!

Leah looks very guilty about playing with the tree! This didn't last long, as her new favorite activity is rearranging the ornaments.  We also got a wreath, but they didn't have or maybe had already run out of sprigs of mistletoe. 

And here's what it looked like decorated (at first - I redid the garland/ribbon after Leah had rearranged the tree one too many times.) We've had this dove topper for a few years - I think it's a bit too heavy for a real tree. 

The mantle & nutcrackers.

And then we watched the Peanuts Christmas special.

I feel compelled to share with the blog readership the (quite festive!) festivus pole at my mom's house.

We cut paper snowflakes to put up in the window. Amelie cut one & Leah provided artistic direction. Here she is with the haul:

I was trying to make a star and I somewhat inadvertently made a chalice in one of them! I was very pleased!

But when I tried to do another one on purpose, it didn't quite come out as well. 

Someone at church has been delivering chalice rocks to people's stoops and the kids found this one - I'm thinking about leaving it with these others: 

The kids were VERY interested in the candles: