Putting up our Christmas tree

Yesterday we were busy busy busy. We started the day by rearranging the living room in preparation for putting up the tree. Joe went and got the tree out of the basement and all the other holiday decorations. We got the tree up and lights on before we had to leave to go to a friend's birthday party. We came home, had dinner, and got right to work on the actual tree decorating.

Alyssa's excited to get this tree decorated

CJ putting an ornament on the tree

Kaitlyn putting an ornament on the tree

Alyssa pulling herself to a stand

CJ wanted to show me his ornament

Angel Celeste Alia is always a part of us

CJ making a funny face

Looking at the tree from the inside out

The final product

I love our tree. It's so pretty! Alyssa is fascinated with the ornaments and has been batting around the ones on the bottom and pulling them off. We keep distracting her from the tree and showing her that we just look at how pretty it is. I'm sure we'll be doing this everyday until the tree comes down, but I refuse to have a tree that isn't fully decorated or a gated tree. She has to learn sometime. Nothing breakable is on the bottom that she can get and there are enough of us to keep a close eye on her.

And of course with the putting up of the Christmas tree comes lots of discussion about why we celebrate Christmas and stories about each of the special ornaments that go on the tree. They all have some sort of special meaning and history for our family.