Oh, Christmas Tree!

On Saturday, we left the cabin bright and early and met up with Anne and her family and about 10 other families they are friends with to go cut down our Christmas tree. I absolutely love this tradition and am so happy that the O'Reilly's include us! Last year we missed out on the annual tree cutting because we were in Florida, so we were happy to take part again this year. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time, it is the perfect way to kick of the Christmas season!

We walked less than 10 minutes into the forest and James stopped in front of a tree and said, "This is it! The best tree in the forest!" He might have just been tired of walking, but who are we to argue with that type of proclomation? He was very excited to help Tim cut it down and yelled, "Timber!"

 Carrying the tree back to the car.

All the families hung out and had a campfire and chili lunch that Anne had made after everyone found their trees. I have to say that the families who took a little more time choosing their tree ended up with some beautiful ones!

 James and Mac had a blast running around with George and Gus and all the other kids there. They never stopped running, so this is the best I could do at capturing the 4 of them.

 Mac and his thematically appropriate shirt.

As soon as we got home, James insisted on getting out all the decorations. He was the most excited for the books and ornaments, but he and Mac were also quite pleased to be reunited with their Christmas stuffed buddies.

 We got about half decorated and then saved the rest for Sunday morning. The boys get an ornament from me each year and they couldn't wait to see what I had picked out for them out this year. I think it is all the years of watching Hallmark Hall of Fame movies with my mom and those sappy Hallmark commercials, but I am a total sucker for Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments and love picking one out each year that I know my boys will love and will always remind us of something they loved from that year. This year James got a Nightmare Before Christmas ornament since it is his favorite movie and Mac got a Batman ornament since he loves dressing up as Batman.

 I am also a total sucker for matching holiday themed jammies. I mean seriously, does it get any cuter?!

Once we got our tree home and set up, I realized it is probably the saddest and scrawniest tree we have ever had. But we love it and being so scrawny, it does a wonderful job of showcasing our ornament collection. Yay for Charlie Brown trees!

James gets SO excited for our holiday book collection to be brought out each year. Each boy gets a hard back Christmas book from me on Christmas Eve, and they get one from my mom as well. So we have that collection in addition to the multitude of paperback and board books we have about Christmas/Winter/Hanukkah/Kwazaa that I have been accumulating since I started teaching that we only have out in December. (Apparently I am a total sucker for holiday books too) Tim tried to tell me that we had too many holiday books and I tried to convince him otherwise, so James and I counted our collection. 71 books. I guess Tim wins that argument. Oh well, I say there are many worse things to hoard than children's holiday books.

 Hooray for Christmas decorating!

 My favorite picture of the boys in a long time. 

We are full blown in the Christmas spirit at out house. Decorations, books, constant Christmas music, holiday dishes, the list goes on. I am so excited for all of our December traditions this month as we lead up to Christmas!