Decorating for Christmas Part 1

This past weekend our family decorated for Christmas! Next to Christmas itself, this is one of our favorite days of the year. There are so many memories that come to mind as we unpack the trees, ornaments, and other decorations that have been in our family for over 20 years. Below are some pictures from our day:

First we had to retrieve the boxes of decorations from the attic above the garage. Over the years it changed from just Daddy getting the boxes to me helping Daddy, to now everyone climbing up into the attic to help. J It is especially interesting to try to fit the large Christmas tree boxes. . .

. . .through the hole to the person standing on the 12 foot ladder below. But we manage every year!

Josiah came up to the attic for the first time this year. He enjoyed himself!

While we were up there, Daddy, Ben, and I crawled into the part of the attic by my bedroom. My room stays rather cold in the winter (62-65 degrees) mostly due to poor design. But we wanted to make sure that all the walls were insulated and that underneath my floor was insulated.

The fun part was trying to crawl through the tiny opening into that portion of the attic and staying on the studs. If we had stepped on the ceiling accidently, those below in the garage would have seen our leg come plunging downward!

Once we all came inside, the decorating began! Here, Josiah puts up the window clings.

Meanwhile Dad and Ben moved furniture and began assembling our Christmas tree.

And then of course there’s the yearly dilemma of “why don’t the lights work?” J

Mommy was so sweet and made a huge pot of hot chocolate and a large batch of popcorn for us to enjoy as lunch. And of course while we were decorating, we played some of our favorite Christmas albums!

I started with unpacking the ornaments box. This is probably my favorite job!

Some of the ornaments on the dining room table with my hot chocolate and bowl of popcorn.

While Daddy went shopping for working lights for the upstairs tree, Ben worked on assembling our basement tree and untangling those lights. This has been our “homemade/kids tree” for many years.

Zack thought he was helping by guarding the Christmas tree box. At least he wasn’t eating anything like pine needles or tinsel.

After we finally had our indoor decorations up, Daddy went outside to hang lights.

To see pictures of our finished decorations, come back tomorrow!