Had I realized last year...

that I would be putting up our Christmas tree alone this year with not-quite-3-year-old twins who can't stay out of trouble and a 5-year-old who thinks she knows everything, I would have packed a bottle of wine in the tree box to get me thru it.

I had visions of a magical night with the kids, us watching Polar Express and drinking hot chocolate, while we laughed and decorated our tree with memories of Christmas past. Polar Express was on in the background, but the sounds I heard were more like tree branches swinging at Brynn's head and ornaments being thrown across the room. All four of us did manage to survive somehow (the same can't be said for three of my ornaments-so far), and the tree is up, albeit a little wobbly I think. I did the lights, but the kids did pretty much everything else (note 90% of the ornaments are on the bottom third of the tree, and I lifted Layla for the higher ones). Between the broken ornaments and the heavy, glass ones I didn't even bother to get out, it's looking a little naked this year but it will have to do.

Pre-tree skirt.


Cale's mad hanging skills...

Nathan and I made a plan last year to start collecting ornaments from all the places we went as a family. We got off to a great start by buying ONE (which I can't even find! lol). Awesome. He is, however, bringing two handmade ornaments home from Kyrgyzstan. He didn't buy them, someone specifically made them for us =)
Pretty sure I'm going to leave the tree up until February. Not necessarily so he can see it. Mostly so that he has to take it down!