We put up the Christmas decorations this week. Mass CHAOS!

Loved hearing all of the "I remember whens" and the excitement. And a whole bunch of fighting also!

Below the kids are wanting to help put up the Christmas village which is really an excuse to sit on the "landing". Which, whenever I sit up there I have this bizzaro temptation to jump. And Nathan actually has. FREAKS me out!

Aunt Debbie sent us this cute book a few years ago. It has envelopes with letters from the north pole and little doors that open and the kids love it so much.

Can you believe it is Christmas time already? I mean I only just took my decorations down a month ago. I seriously am not in the mood already. I never had time to even get excited for it because...IT. WAS. JUST. HERE. Also, I don't like the clutter of all the decorations. Am I bad?

Life has truly sped up. Time is flying by. Even the kids notice it. When I was a kid it was FOREVER until Christmas. Now, even the kids can't believe Christmas is here ALREADY again.

For some reason....Something demented, crazy, nutso, freakoness, came over me and I bought a NON...you read correctly... NON prelit tree. And it sucks. Which is a word I don't let my kids say. But it does.

So last year I spent like 4 hours weaving every light onto each branch and covering every section. It was beeautiful and totally over the top sparkly. But not worth the time! So this year I was already dreading it. But I have a little OCD and I still wanted the tree very twinkly and very bright and very....evenly strung.

So Nathan is working on a merit badge for scouts and he chose on his own free will, without me even suggesting it, to string the Christmas lights "so I can have more time".

Which thrilled me so I wouldn't have to do it...but didn't thrill me because I want them to look the way I want them to look....but thrilled me because if Nathan is trying to do something sweet for me....how can I argue with that!

I had to give him some basic decorating directions. And I began to turn into freaky monstrous mom and I just had to leave (have you all see that funny youtube clip about this lady who wants her tree perfect? So classic). And just let him go for it. And he did.

And it's a bit heineous. But I don't care. That much. Okay maybe only a little. But I ain't TOUCHING it.

He didn't understand that you string the lights end to end. So instead

we have a very cordy situation going on.

Let the decorating begin!

We have pictures of Christ as our decorations.

Last year, I didn't follow through on teaching the kids about Christ everyday for Christmas. The year before, I did pretty dang good. And I have some good plans for this Dec. Starting tomorrow. I'll keep you posted!

P.S. It will begin with making papers to slip inside our folders with collages of pictures of Christ, that I cut out from all our church magazine. That took a few hours!

I decided maybe the most important thing I need to give my kids before they leave my home as grown ups, is a testimony of Christ. That is what we are working for in Dec. Can I just pull them out of school for the whole month? I really need them home so I can teach them the very most important things. Who needs math?