(insert Christmasy title here)

Well.  Christmas is 15 days away.  I was so close to holding off this year, but I gave Jesse his Christmas present today when he came home from work.  I had only had it out of the mailbox probably an hour by that point.  At least I didn't tell him what it was this year.  For anyone who is keeping count, this makes it 7 consecutive years that I haven't given him a present on Christmas because I get too excited.

We went as a family to pick out a Christmas tree on Saturday.  I had all kinds of wonderful pictures in my head of what this would look like, now that Lily is more observant and participatory in our traditions.  Needless to say, that was a flop.  It was warm and rainy, the place we went to get the tree didn't have any power (hah), and the whole field of trees was muddy.  Instead of cutting our tree ourselves, we picked a nice one that had already been cut, and since we all went and my car doesn't have a luggage rack, the silly tree had to be stuffed unceremoniously in the trunk of my car.  Which,  yes, that means I have a 4 foot tree.  I have been teasing Jesse about the tiny tree, but honestly, it looks great and Lily loves it, so I could really care less.  We decided that we would make the half mile hike required to cut our own tree in a year or two when the girls can walk and maybe after I get a luggage rack on top of my car.  And not a single picture was taken.

When we got home, we excitedly started pulling boxes down from the attic so we could start decorating the tree.  Not too much to be said for the actual decorating-- there is only 4' of tree to worry about-- but Jesse did think one strand of 100 lightbulbs would be sufficient.  He's funny.  Lily loved to help put ornaments on the tree, and maybe next year, I will have the Christmas cookies and egg nog I wanted to have this year, which was a tradition my family always had and I want to carry on here.  Pandora on Jesse's tablet supplied us with Christmas music, and Emma was able to tip a box over and find herself a little ball of bells to ring as she played on the floor.

Sunday, I took the first set of Christmas pictures of the girls in front of the tree.  I had fun at least, and Lily and Emma were both in good moods.  The second set will be coming, hopefully this week.

favorite

except I really love this one, too.

Tonight, Jesse and Lily finally had a chance to decorate our gingerbread house.  We received a kit for a house three years ago, when Lily was 3 months old, so we decorated it by ourselves that year and joked that when the kids were able to help, Jesse would have to do one by himself so he could show his artistic flair while I did one with the kids.  We bought a kit ourselves last year and again, did it by ourselves.  This year, I made the gingerbread for the house myself and Lily got to "help" decorate.  She really ate more of the candy than she put on the house, of course.

constructing the house a few days ago

one of a few pieces that actually made it to the house

2012- Lily and I will be making one (probably out of graham crackers) next year, and we will let Jesse  make our gingerbread house pretty.  I learned a lot about making a gingerbread house from scratch, though!  it will be fun for us all to decorate together with a huge pile of candy next year.

2011- a rushed and pathetic attempt.  I couldn't get the icing right.

2010- our most artistic and pretty.