It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Actually, it is only partially beginning to look like Christmas. :) People are putting up lights, the stores have holiday themes and music, but we're missing one important element for it to look like Christmas: SNOW! This isn't a complaint, though. I'm loving the "warm" weather.

However, since it is officially Christmas-time we put up our tree Monday night. This year (thanks to Hilary who braved Thanksgiving-day crowds) we have a train to go around our tree. The kids are SO excited about this, especially since Paul put up the train a few days before we got around to the tree:

Now, growing up I think I vowed to never get a fake tree. I love the pine smell of real trees, and they just seem to be a lot more fun -- I mean, we have a tree in the house! However, now that I'm one of the ones responsible for getting the tree, we're all about fake! Here the fam is starting to put the pieces together:

If we had a real tree, though, would we have gotten such an adorable smile from a girl who is giddy about her daddy putting together a Christmas tree?

And what would the kids have done for entertainment while waiting for the tree to be set up? With fake branches, they acted like they were light sabers and swords and "fought" until the branches were needed:

Anyway, the kids always have a blast putting on the ornaments. We've been fortunate to inherit some very cute ornaments from my mom (thanks for getting a smaller house, mom :). These are in addition to the ones they bought us when we moved into our new house three years ago and thought we were too busy to put up a tree. So, we're set for a while. Look at how happy Zachary is to help:

Shayla, Tyler and Becca had an assembly line going to get ornaments to the top of the tree. It was cute:

And in the middle of tree decorating, I guess it's mandatory to take a Star Wars break:

We have two Santa hats from forever ago when I had just moved to Seattle and Hilary and I needed a Christmas picture, and the kids love them every year:

Right after putting it on, Shayla sat down to talk to our Santa figure. It was adorable:

We also have two very cheap nativities that we let the kids play with. Yes, they're both made of glass, but we figure if they break they break. Oh well. In any case, Shayla pulled them out and was so excited to see Mommy, Daddy and "ME!" It was funny. I think we have plenty of time to teach her the true meaning of Christmas and that the baby in the nativities is in fact not her ...

Oh, and a little sidenote here. In case you're wondering what the deal is with Shayla's hair in these pictures, it is a post-nap version of this:

I don't know why I love this look so much, but I happen to think it's adorable. I'm thinking we've gotta start getting her the tangle-free shampoo or go for a cut!

Hope you all have a blast getting ready for Christmas yourselves. Remember what a precious season this is. Merry Christmas!