The halls have been decked

I feel sort of like my sister-in-law, Jill, lately. My computer has a virus that won't let me get on the internet. Steve has his work laptop here and said I could use it. I don't have my pictures on this one, or the software to edit the pics, so please bear with me and these pics-some may be sideways, some may be grainy, but they're better than nothing.

Last Saturday we finally got our Christmas tree (we got a real one again this year-I LOVE the smell when I walk into the room), got it decorated, and set up our Nativity Scene and our Christmas Village that I also LOVE! (When Steve was in Jr. High or High School, I'm not sure which, his parents started the tradition of giving them a piece of the Dept. 56 Dicken's Christmas Village every year for Christmas and continued it up until a few years ago when everyone had too many pieces to display. This is my favorite Christmas decoration!) We also got ourselves some stockings and hung them too. I think we are now officially ready for Christmas-other than all the shopping we still need to do.

Here is our tree-it was a little bigger than it looked on the lot so Steve had to get out his saw and cut about a foot off of it. We love it though. I made the garland wrapped around it out of wired ribbon-it took me A LOT longer than I thought it would-oh well, at least it's done now and I don't have to do it again next year!

This is the tree we set up in the girl's room, they are having a great time undecorating and decorating it.

Our stockings are hung by the front door with care!

Here are most of our village pieces...

And last, but most important, our Nativity Scene. It has been great to hear Abi understanding more about baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph this year. Hopefully we can instill on our children the real reason we celebrate this season.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!