Christmas Tree

I love Christmas.  If I had it my way, Christmas would last all year long... but since most people disagree with me, I limit myself to making my house Christmasy as soon as I can after Thanksgiving.  This year it took us a few extra days because I was recovering from the half marathon, but we did have our tree up and decorated well before Charlie's birthday.

As he did the last two years, Charlie put the first ornament up.  This year he chose our new ornaments - a snowman ball.  He was really excited to find just the right spot for it.

Once the ornaments were all on, Andy ascended a step stool to put a bow on top.

With the tree decorated, we turned off all the lights and sat around admiring it.  It is our tradition to sing a few Christmas carols the night it goes up.  This year we sang "Oh, Christmas Tree" "Silent Night" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".

The next day Ephram and Charlie had a lot of fun admiring the ornaments.  This was Ephram's first Christmas tree experience, and he loved it enough to walk around the tree a little bit!

Boone liked staring at the tree too - and once Ephram noticed he was there, the dog took precendence.

But we managed to get him back to the tree when Charlie showed him a candy cane.  Ephram really loves his brother, and vice-versa.

We each chose a new ornament this year, which is another Kovar tradition.  Here are some photos of the new additions.

For Andy and I, we added a Little Drummer Boy ornament - in honor of our two drummer boys.

For Ephram we have a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament... I've always wanted a reason to put one of these on the tree!

And Charlie, as in past years chose a Snoopy ornament.  There's something about Charlie Brown that he loves... maybe it is that they share a name.

We had so much fun decorating and admiring our tree this year.  I will be sad when it is time to take it down!  Maybe this is the year that I'll win and get to keep it up?  Doubtful...