Getting Ready for Christmas

We had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas this year, especially since Marie had a better understanding of the holiday and was able to be more excited about it herself. We took the kids to a tree farm to cut down a tree. They enjoyed getting to ride the wagon out to the trees and Marie ran through the rows "looking" for the right one. Thankfully, Uncle Mark also joined us, making the task of cutting the tree and getting it set up in the house much more manageable with the two kids.




Marie took special care in decorating the tree and making sure that all ornaments were in their proper location...even if, after specifically being told not to, it required her to remove the already hanging ornaments and re-position them. (Sigh) Joey on the other hand barely noticed the addition to the living room.


Marie also spent a good part of a day constructing and decorating a gingerbread house with Colleen (our sitter). She did a great job and was quite proud of it. She also loved to look out the window for Christmas lights and decorations on houses that we passed while driving. Other than that we also worked on counting down the days to Christmas with a Jesse tree and a good old fashioned calendar. Seeing the excitement in a 3-year old as Christmas approaches reminded me of how much I looked forward to the Christmas as a kid and helped to bring back the "magic."