Christmas is Here!

After we wrapped up our Thanksgiving festivities, we headed straight back out to the deer lease. It was windy and cold this time so we did a lot of indoor playing. At the lease, almost anything goes. We do enforce our regular manners, but the rules are definitely a lot looser. For example, the kids are not allowed to climb or jump on furniture at home. At the lease, they do this:


Jackson knows it's safer to ride the horsey ("dide horse") but he has been known to take the leap off the back of the bench to do "ticks" like his sister. We only had one minor busted lip after hours of this craziness...not too bad.

Like I mentioned, it was cold and windy at the lease so we packed it up early and headed home (shocking!). We got in early enough to do our Christmas decorating this evening. Jeff got it all down from the attic---there's not much, really---and I put up the house decorations while the kids had baths. After dinner, we decorated the tree together. Actually, Jackson was pulling them off as fast as the girls (Caroline was over while her parents were at choir practice) could put them on.


We have Uncle Tim to thank for teaching Addi how to make that lovely face she's got on display in that last picture. I just love it (sigh...).
We gave up pretty quickly with having the kids help. It was just going nowhere so we had treats in the kitchen...hot chocolate and warm, fresh chocolate chip cookies.

We brushed teeth, read our first of many Christmas stories, and tucked the three kiddos in bed. THEN I finished up the tree while Jeff (very cheerfully--not sarcastic) kept me company. Here's the finished product:

This is a close-up of our Christmas Pyramid (???) on table. It's one of our favorite purchases from Germany and the McDonalds mailed it to us just in time to decorate (THANK YOU GUYS!!!). We LOVE it!

Merry Christmas!!