Ready for Christmas

We have been decking our halls, and getting the house ready for the Christmas season.

When we took down our Christmas tree last year, we went ahead and chucked it in the trash can.  It was time.  It was past time, actually.  That thing was probably over 10 years old.  

So, one of the first things the 8 of us did was to take ourselves to Hobby Lobby and buy a new tree. 7ft.  Frasier Fir.  Fuller and bigger on the bottom.  Love it!

When we got it out, we all worked together to spread the limbs and branches:

Can you see everyone?

Look closer and you can G under the right side:

And D under the left side:

In some years past we have wrapped all our Christmas books and then unwrapped them one day/book at a time.  This year we decided to just put them all out under there:

And I'm glad we did.  The littles have already had a great time looking through them:

In this above picture, G is "reading"/singing his way through our "Twelve Days of Christmas" by Rachel Isadora.  We have two Twelve Days books, but he prefers the pictures in this one.  He is loving this song...and it is hilarious to listen to him.  He always starts with "FIVE GOLDEN RINGS"...then things get fuzzy/mumbly and then "Two calling dogs...AND A POPERIDGE IN A PEAR TWEE!"  Maybe he'll get it all down by the end of this season...but that will make me sad.

After becoming a Christ-follower when I was 26, I took a good look around at mine and Jason's Christmas decorations....and threw most of them away.  

Now we mostly decorate with Nativity scenes... 

This was a gift from my aunt about 10 years ago....and I LOVE it!

...but even they have started looking different the past few years.


With the exception of the above scene, our nativity scenes all either have more melanin...

...or no melanin:

These looked so odd to me at first, just because that is not what we normally see here in the US...

...but the fact is that Joseph, Mary and Jesus' skin looked a whole lot more like this than our Caucasian skin!

Our new angel

And I am still loving the Christ-centered crafts from the last few years:

Don't notice my dead plant in the lower left of the picture...unless you have suggestions for a plant I can't kill.
I even kill succulents.

So, we don't "do Santa" around here.  Or Elf-on-the-shelf.


Gasp


And yet,  somehow...

....our kiddos still love Christmas and all that it means.