Getting Ready for Christmas

As Thanksgiving quickly disappears in our rear view mirror, we are hard at work getting geared up for Christmas.  We are very excited this year due to the fact that we're going to get the best of both worlds when it comes to our kids.  First off, we will get to watch Xander experience Christmas as he begins to understand what Christmas is all about.  And second, with Alaster, we get to experience the joy of Christmas with a new baby.

On Xander's first Christmas, he was only 3 months old, so he basically slept through the entire season.  Last year he was 15 months, so he enjoyed the sights and sounds of Christmas, but he of course didn't know why it was all happening.  But this year, not only does he enjoy all the sights and sounds, but we get to teach him that Jesus is why we celebrate Christmas and the reason for all the lights, decorations and even the presents.  The magic of Christmas will begin to come alive in him this year and we are really excited to watch that happen.

With Alaster we get to enjoy Christmas form the perspective of knowing that we celebrate the arrival of a Savior in the form of a small baby boy.  Being able to do that while holding a small baby boy in your arms helps bring that whole perspective to life; it touches a place in your heart that might otherwise be overlooked.

So as we begin this Christmas season, we are doing so knowing that we are going to get to celebrate in two very different perspectives at the same time.  It's like we get the best of both worlds and it feels like it's just going to multiply the experience beyond our dreams.

The pictures below are just the beginning of what is going to be an Awesome Christmas Season.

The day after Thanksgiving we got the Christmas lights up on the house.  We brought out our fire pit from the backyard and made doing so into quite an event.  It was great to have the neighbors stop by and chat for a few minutes as they warmed themselves by the fire.

Our house gets overrun with snowmen at Christmastime.  Some of those snowmen Xander gets to play with and some he doesn't .  Early in our time of decorating, Xander found a few snowmen items that he just had to have join him for his afternoon nap.  Thankfully we were able to snap a quick picture after he fell asleep; as you can see  he's got a couple of snowmen pillows on his bed with him as well as one snowman standing post at his bed.

This doesn't look like anything to do with Christmas, but looks can be deceiving.  Alaster we surrounded by Christmas decorations and boxes as we unpacked them and put everything out.  He just laid there and quietly watched as the chaos unfolded around him.

Xander hanging up his extra-large Christmas Stocking on the wall in his room.

Sunday night we went and picked out our Christmas tree.  Xander was a huge help and helped us not only pick it out, but get it loaded on the truck.

Alaster helped with the tree as well.  As you can see he worked so hard laying in his car seat that he fell asleep.  Thank goodness we had him all bundled up in his teddy bear out fit because it was coooollllld.

It's uncertain what Xander said to make his Daddy laugh so hard, but we all had a great time picking out our tree and bringing it home.

He's just so darn cute don't you think?

Xander was a huge help in picking out and loading up our Christmas tree for the trip home.  Thankfully he was there to help because it might not have gotten done if he hadn't been.

We wanted a tall tree, but we really didn't grasp how tall it was until we got it home.  This is by far the biggest tree we have ever had, but some things you just shouldn't skimp on if you know what we mean.