Deck the Halls!

We have been getting ready for Christmas around here and having a good time doing it. I love this time of year!

Saturday night (after Steve had a bit of a chance to recover from some major jet lag) we headed to Stew Leonards to pick out a Christmas tree. This is the first time we've ever bought a real tree. I love the smell of it and I love how much fuller the real ones are than the fake ones. It was soooo bitter cold that we looked at two trees and just picked one. We made Steve stand in line with the employee to wrap it up while the girls and I went inside to warm up a bit. Abi had fun looking at all the trees, she loves the "sparkly" trees!She liked 'em so much she wouldn't turn around for a picture.

Emma tried to keep warm in her carseat...like her cute hat? Steve brought it home from Korea.

I think Abi is excited because we're headed back to the car to warm up.

We decided to let the tree sit over night before decorating it since the branches we kind of bunched up. Sunday afternoon we got busy decorating it. I did the lights, I hate doing them, but it had to be done. Then Steve and I put on the glass ornaments and we let Abi help do the little unbreakable ones. She had a lot of fun and spends most of the day now looking at the tree, saying what color the lights are and pulling ornaments off.

"What color is it?" Abi's favorite question.

The finished product...well, almost, we're having a hard time finding something to put on top of it, everything I've seen so far is corny and not attractive.

The stockings are hung by the front door with care...

(the chimney/fireplace was blocked by the tree)

Don't you love these stockings? My mom made them. Mine is pretty much as old as I am, I've had this one since I was little. When Steve and I got married my mom made him one and then she's made both of the girls one. They are normally for use at their home, but since we won't be there for Christmas she brought them out to us so we can use them here(hopefully they won't end up full of coal either).