Decorating

So we got home from getting the tree and the kids were thrilled to help decorate. 

 

Until N left to go to his room...where he threw up all over his bed.  This is the second time in three years we have had someone puke the day we get our tree.  Random. 

 

We did a clean up, but clearly it didn't affect him too long ;)

 

I love letting the boys help, but I'm not going to lie, it still stresses me out a bit.  We broke a few this year, and they had their hands all over stuff...better than in years past but almost worse, since I let them do a lot of grabbing themselves, where I haven't in the past.  And I really do love having them help...I know it is probably going to be a short period of time where they will happily help. 

 

Z pulled out Spiderman...mom gave that one to Nate many many years ago.  Also, he grabbed the best red spider, but I didn't get a picture.  That is one that Jenny and I fought over every year growing up...can't wait for the boys to fight over that treasure as they get older too! 

This year Z was able to spell it out perfectly (have I mentioned that this kid can SPELL?!  It is ridiculous how good he is at spelling...must be all that reading he is doing.)

The boys are checking out all of my music boxes.  They were all ours growing up.  Not sure why Jenny has none...but that's ok with me!  They know that they can't touch them...but it will be a miracle if none of my pretties are broken. 

 

We also got out the advent calendar.  This year I decided to add some scripture to each pocket, so Z is reading that aloud every morning. 

 

I checked out The Jesse Tree from our library and we have been LOVING it.  A few months ago I started reading from The Jesus Storybook Bible at breakfast, so we took a break from it to do this book.  I am toying with the idea of looking for new charms for our advent calendar that correlate to the Jesse Tree...and keeping some of the sentimental charms from my childhood...but that will have to happen for next year. 

 

 

We also pulled out the Little People nativity set.  I can't even explain how incredibly special this set is to me.  Mom had ordered it for Z, and it arrived at her house the day she died (in September...mom...always planning way ahead).  When Jenny and I walked in the next morning (which, for the record, was completely horrible and moronic of us to do), there were the boxes from Amazon with all of Z's presents ready to go.  Still hurts my heart thinking about it as much as it did that day.  But she had planned, God love her!!

So when we get it out we always talk about how it was from Grandma Lora, and how even though she is not here now, she would still want the boys to know about Jesus, because that is who SHE is with!!  I'm so glad to have her as part of our Christmas every year...wish she was here physically, but we'll take what we can get.