Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Day We Decked the Halls

Decorating the Christmas tree is one of our favorite activities during the Christmas holiday.  Not only do the girls love putting up all the decorations but they also look forward to getting their new ornament for that year.  After attending Katelyn’s piano recital, Papa Murphy was kind enough to make our dinner, which we ate while watching a new Christmas movie and then it was time to deck the halls.

Kate Brooke & Em - ornaments 12-3-11cKate Brooke & Em - ornaments 12-3-11a

The girls tore into their ornaments and were excited to find tiny light up snowman snow globes with their names.  Katelyn’s ornament was Smurfette, Brooke’s was Blair from Barbie Princess Charm School and Emily got a set of Sesame Street Characters that included Elmo of course.

Kate's Smurfette & snowman ornament 12-3-11bBrooke's Barbie & snowman ornament 12-3-11aEmily's Elmo ornament 12-3-11aEmily's Elmo ornament 12-3-11aaaEmily's Elmo ornament 12-3-11aaKate & Brooke's ornaments 12-3-11a

Then it was time to decorate.  I absolutely love getting out each of the ornaments and remembering when we got them and what they meant.  The yearly ornaments for the girls and the ones they’ve made for us are definitely my favorite modes of transport down memory lane. 

Emily's Elmo ornament 12-3-11cBrooke - tree decorating 12-3-11c

We decorated for hours and each ornament was lovingly placed.  The ornaments that were low enough, were also removed and replaced numerous times by Emily.  She was amazed by everything about decorating process – especially that she could do what ever she wanted with the lower tier ornaments and no one told her no.  That doesn’t happen very often in her world. 

Kyle & Emily - tree decorating 12-3-11aEmily's Elmo ornament 12-3-11bEmily - tree decorating 12-3-11aKate - tree decorating 12-3-11c

Eventually, part of our decorating crew got tired…

Kyle - tree decorating 12-3-11aEmily - tree decorating 12-3-11c

… but playing peek-a-boo behind the tablecloth seemed to revive Emily.

Emily playing hide and seek 12-3-11aaEmily playing hide and seek 12-3-11aaaEmily playing hide and seek 12-3-11a

Just before bedtime we finally finished…

Emily - tree decorating 12-3-11dKate Brooke & Em - tree decorating 12-3-11g

… and what better way to celebrate our completion of decking the halls than with a concert featuring our musical tree ornaments.  I remember doing the same thing with those ornaments when I was a kid, but mine was a solo performance – the girls trio was lovely and this really was the perfect kickoff to the Christmas season at our house.

Brooke playing in the orchestra 12-3-11aEm & Kate playing in the orchestra 12-3-11aEmily playing in the orchestra 12-3-11a

Fa la la la la… la la… la… la.

1 comment:

Monika said...

Brooke's poses remind me so much of Jade! i love the snow globe ornaments -- unfortunately I couldn't find them in the names I needed. :( This makes me miss you guys so much!!