Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

The girls and I spent the last few days putting up the Christmas tree (and all of it's millions of pieces!) and lighting it.  The set up is the part that Daddy usually prefers to opt out of, but we're saving the ornaments to do together when he gets home from school! 

I very fondly remember all of the years of putting up our family Christmas tree with my parents and brothers.  It was usually a Sunday afternoon, the entire living room floor would be covered with lights, ornaments, and tinsel.  I remember the way we would laugh at Dad trying to untangle the lights, just to discover that half of the string didn't work!  I remember watching our cat take the tinsel off the tree to eat it.   And most of all, I remember just how much I loved seeing the finish product....especially after dark when the tree lit the whole room!  I loved seeing the tree lit up every night of the Christmas season until we would take it down until the next year.  In fact, every December, this was one of the biggest things that I missed about home for the 4 years I was away at college .

So, for this reason, I want to "include" the girls as much as possible in putting up the tree, lights, and ornaments every Christmastime.  Last year Brynn slept on the floor while the tree went up.  This year, she played with the strings of lights as I was putting them up and Molly sat in her chair taking it all in with bright colors reflected in her bright eyes.

How lucky I am to have a home for our Christmas tree, wonderful family memories, and traditions to share with the next generation!