December Activities - Part I - Tree Trimming...

Don't let the picture deceive you - it was not a Christmas in Connecticut serene decorating event. My dear friend since age 13 years came for a visit this past week (More on that in another posting). I was telling her I took these photos of the kids decorating the tree. From the photos it looks like I have these perfect, calm, well mannered children. But one does not see what happens between photos or how I had to get the photos. 

First, we put up our decorations on December 10th -  somewhat late because, well, we're tired and busy and having three kids has hit us hard, especially with the third being a baby. I'm not in any of the photos because I was busy tending to said baby who happened to be having one of her three hour cry-a-thons. These frazzle me so I was pretty tense most of the time we were decorating.

Next, I have my children somewhat trained to stop, pose, and smile for the camera. This first shot, T saw his dad filming him decorate the tree. When he saw the camera he stopped to pose with the gingerbread man. It was such a cute moment that he did that, my hubby took a still photo to capture the moment. We'll skip the video - crying baby and all. 

Next, the kids were never simultaneously putting on ornaments. Most of the time one was rooting around in the box of ornaments or picking an ornament apart while the other was hanging. The photo of the two of them decorating the tree was totally posed. I made them both freeze in place while holding or pointing at an ornament so I could get a decorating shot. Hanging the angel was very much the same - Hubby did most of the hanging (it being a 100 year old angel and all) and left just the last bit for Sister to do. I missed the shot of her doing her hanging so I had to have them repeat the moment so I could capture it. 

Our traditional decorations were put out. I wanted to show the stockings as I think this is the last year we'll not have matching stockings. Since I feel pretty strongly that our family is not going to grow any more, I am planning matching stockings with all our names on them. We'll see if I can pull it off before next Christmas.

The last photo of the kids snuggling one another is genuine sibling love - that was unprompted and I am grateful to my kids for reminding me what Christmas is all about. I was so concerned about capturing the perfect pictures of our tree trimming.

Oh, the tree looked terrible but I think it has been our prettiest ever - the ormanets were heavy loaded on the front bottom, some branches having 4-5 ornamets while entire sections of the tree were bare. Some ornaments were hung up-side-down or hung after being picked apart. The lights were sparse. Still, a lovely tree and one we enjoyed this season.

Plus, you gotta love that T wanted to hear his Halloween jammies to decorate for Christmas. 

More on our Christmas events but that's all I have in me tonight - baby calls...