We visited my parent's house last weekend when my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came down for a visit (no picture of the kids together - UGH) and my mom gave the girls a "foamie" gingerbread house to put together. While they required quite a bit of help, they had a great time and it turned out really cute!
We finally (after talking about it the past 2 or 3 Christmases, probably) broke down and purchase an artificial tree. It was a major decision, both because of the expense and because both John and I grew up basically with real Christmas trees. It just got too difficult with 3 young kids to get out to the lot to get the tree (weather factors into that quite often), trying to keep it alive (we like to put our tree up early and it always seems to dry out so quickly), cleaning up the mess of dropped needles almost daily let along the mess when it's brought into and out of the house, and the cost - we paid $80 for our tree last year that barely lasted 3 weeks (there's another story behind our tree last year - basically the straw that broke the camel's back - ask us sometime. Anyway, we love the tree and it will pay for itself very quickly. We got it up in one night and decorated in another night instead of the week long affair with a real tree (John is VERY particular about or tree, so it would take one day to get it and get it into the house and usually a separate night to put on the 1000 lights, then another to put on the ornaments). At least we've gotten rid of one Christmas season stress in our lives. The girls were really into decorating this year and kept asking me over and over again all day when we were going to put the ornaments on the tree - we had to wait until Daddy got home - it was a LONG afternoon!!
We finally (after talking about it the past 2 or 3 Christmases, probably) broke down and purchase an artificial tree. It was a major decision, both because of the expense and because both John and I grew up basically with real Christmas trees. It just got too difficult with 3 young kids to get out to the lot to get the tree (weather factors into that quite often), trying to keep it alive (we like to put our tree up early and it always seems to dry out so quickly), cleaning up the mess of dropped needles almost daily let along the mess when it's brought into and out of the house, and the cost - we paid $80 for our tree last year that barely lasted 3 weeks (there's another story behind our tree last year - basically the straw that broke the camel's back - ask us sometime. Anyway, we love the tree and it will pay for itself very quickly. We got it up in one night and decorated in another night instead of the week long affair with a real tree (John is VERY particular about or tree, so it would take one day to get it and get it into the house and usually a separate night to put on the 1000 lights, then another to put on the ornaments). At least we've gotten rid of one Christmas season stress in our lives. The girls were really into decorating this year and kept asking me over and over again all day when we were going to put the ornaments on the tree - we had to wait until Daddy got home - it was a LONG afternoon!!
The tree is up and pretty much decorated - now we have to find the time to decorate the rest of the house - maybe this weekend?? We are looking forward to a fun Christmas season.
The newest thing everyone has been enjoying is playing in the kitchen with utensils while mom fixes whatever meal is appropriate at the time (lunch or dinner). Here is Elizabeth playing her violin and trumpet, respectively. Thanks to Baby Einstien "Meet the Orchestra", the girls love to pretend and know all about LOTS of different instruments - in church a couple of weeks ago, Elizabeth said "Mommy, look at the harp!" and they enjoyed listening to a young girl play.
