Christmas Preparations

I love decorating the tree. It is one of the most exciting parts of the day after Thanksgiving, especially here since I wasn't able to go to the Black Friday madness. The only sad part was we had to use our artificial tree. There aren't many evergreens here and usually we go up to Idaho and cut one down ourselves. It is a good stand by though and I am grateful that we have it. I had bought a bunch of new decorations last year at the after Christmas sale at Tai Pan so I was thrilled to pull them out and see how they looked.

Derek ALWAYS puts the angel on top.

This year Allee was very helpful and very meticulous. She rearranged the ornaments for a week making sure they were just right.


Pierce was just excited that we let him help (thank heaven for shatterproof ornaments!) The bottom branches were beautiful thanks to him, and very heavy.

Today was a big day, Santa sent Allee and Pierce letters in the mail.

Allee was all smiles especially when Santa told her that he might be leaving gifts for her in Utah and Missouri, because he knew she was flying on an airplane and couldn't take big things back with her. Who wouldn't be excited it's like two Christmas'!

Pierce just kept pointing to the picture of Santa on the top and saying, "HoHo".

On Saturday we took a trip to Springfield to walk around the mall and eat some good food, we ate at Olive Garden and afterwards I was taking Allee to the restroom. We came back and Pierce was squirmy and talking all excitedly about something. I turned around to see a man across the restaurant wearing red with a white beard and hair. Pierce kept saying, "HoHo" over and over again and then waved at the man. "Santa" was a good sport and waved back. I am guessing this isn't the first time it has happened to him, and certainly not the last, I mean he really looked like Santa. This was not a quiet exchange, it had grabbed the attention of at least three tables around us and our waitress who thought it was the cutest thing ever, I agree with her. We didn't point the man out, Pierce just found him. I love the sweet innocence of children and the excitement and magic of this season!