Soon after Thanksgiving, our family decorated our home for Christmas. I love this time of year! Jason and I assembled the tree-- gotta love the ease of these pre-lit ones! Cody and Jaden selected which side of our reversible tree skirt we should use this year, and then they cozied up under the tree to get a good look at the lights from underneath.
Then, it was ornament time! The boys are at a perfect age this year for being excited about all these holiday traditions. Jaden and Cody enthusiastically helped with the entire box of ornaments. Typically, I would take several ornaments out of their containers, set them on the ground, and the boys would choose where to place them on the tree.
Occasionally, the boys would open up a few ornament boxes themselves. But when this led to several torn box lids, we tasked the opening back to Mommy. :)
Daddy tried to teach Jaden and Cody a little about how to space the ornaments around the tree...
...while making sure that no one fell into the tree while decorating. We had a few close calls!
Daddy also helped the boys adorn the top of the tree.
Everyone's favorite part was standing back and admiring the glow of the fully decorated tree. Merry Christmas!
In addition to preparing our home for the holidays, our church has an annual women's event to help get our hearts in the right place for the Christmas season. The event is an Advent brunch in which ladies volunteer to host (i.e. decorate) a table for a group of other women. The brunch tickets were hot items this year since the event speaker was the popular Bible study leader Beth Moore. So, in order to allow for our whole family to attend and sit at the same table, Mom volunteered to be a hostess. She did a beautiful job of selecting decorations and setting up the table.
Doesn't the table look so elegant? Way to go, Mom!!
So many groups of ladies were in attendance that several of the tables (like ours) were placed upstairs in our church's community center. We had a great view of all the tables below us. It's hard to tell from the picture, but some of them were quite elaborate!
Our table of five consisted of Chelsea, Kim, Mom, me, and a sweet woman from my Bible study group, Cindy.
We enjoyed a tasty brunch meal of chicken salad, and of course, relished in the time to engage in full conversations without kiddos. May I never take for granted what a treat that is! :)
Beth Moore was a wonderful speaker, as she reminded us of the true purpose of this Christmas season. One of her best points was how many people of the world get set-up for a let-down this time of year-- trying to make everything just right or having too many high expectations this time of year and then ending the season disappointed. As Christians, however, we can remember that this season is all about how God sets us up for a send-down. God sent His Son to our sinful world to be a beacon of light and hope amidst the darkness of sin and disappointment.
What a wonderful message to prepare our hearts as we march into this busy season!
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