The tree is up finally!

We are normally a family that gets the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, giving us plenty of time to enjoy it. But this year with my pneumonia and my husband's bronchitis we just couldn't manage it. Yesterday Rachel and Noah came over and put up the tree for us and even put the lights on. Rachel is the daughter of the lady who cleans for my dear mother-in-law; Noah is her brother. Without them we wouldn't have had a tree at all this year. Today the kids and I decorated it. Actually it was all them; I was having a really bad day after doing too much yesterday. So they put on the tinsel and ornaments themselves. As you can guess the bottom half is very decorated and the top half not quite as much. I deliberately decided not to put on my favorite (breakable) ornaments this year. Having a 3 year old and 3 kittens makes me nervous. Those kittens have as much energy and destructive powers as your average 1 year old. But the tree is up and looks beautiful nonetheless.

Rose started a new tradition in our family last year that we continued tonight. We gather around the tree, pick out an ornament and sing a Christmas carol about it. Tonight Rose picked out an angel ornament. So we talked about how the angels announced the birth of Jesus, then sang "Hark the Herald Angels." I really enjoyed it and hope we continue this!

The pictures above show us at Holiday Junction, the Christmas train display at Museum Center, another Hahn family tradition. Our good friends Emily and Nathan came into town to visit us last Saturday and we bravely decided to take 3 of the 4 kids out in public (David was bowling with his Cub Scout troop). With 4 adults and 3 kids, we figured it would be relatively easy. WRONG! The kids had a great time; the grownups not so much. We looked at everything, lost track of the kids several times, said hi to Santa and did some window shopping in the really expensive gift shop. When we decided to leave that exhibit and explore another museum, Matthew melted down. Yep, kicking, screaming, crying, the whole 9 yards. So we cut the trip short and headed to the van with everyone a little out of sorts. But the kids had fun at the trains and that's all that counts.