Christmas Branches

This year we managed to get our Christmas tree up and decorated over Thanksgiving weekend.
The boys were so excited to help, and were able to help more than ever before.
Surprisingly, I did not move one ornament once the tree was all put together.
(But I did give the boys several suggestions as they decked it out.)

As usual, we added an ornament for each of the kids this year.

Ephram did not pick any of the ornaments I thought he would.
He did pick out this model airplane.
He was so excited about it, when we took it out of the box he flew it all over the house.
It landed right up near the top of the tree, (with his dad's help.)

Charlie's choice was obvious.
A Lego Star Wars Storm Trooper, of course.
(He loves Legos, loves Star Wars, and is obsessed with the Dark Side currently.)

For our family ornament we chose a mystery one this year.

We all like it.

Which is good, since you can't return a mystery ornament.

We also added another Disney ornament to mark our family vacation for this year.
(I neglected to take a picture of it!)

And here is Macie's 1st Christmas ornament.

Ephram had a very fun time putting the candy canes on the tree. 

He also spent most of December moving them around for us.

By the end of the month we had more than 10 candy canes on one branch.

And I wouldn't change it for anything.

I'm going to cherish the memory of the year that Ephram took charge of our candy canes.

I tried to take a picture of the boys in front of the tree when we were done.
Ephram wasn't interested, so Charlie caught him for me.
He was only in the frame for two seconds, so this is the best I did.

But Charlie stayed a bit longer.

I tried again the next day, when Macie was awake.  And again, Ephram evaded the camera.
But these two were real cute.

And then a bit of sibling jealousy came into play and I was lucky to catch this.
My baby girl has no idea how lucky she is to have two brothers that love her so much.
I hope these three remain close as I force them to sit through pictures in years to come.
If nothing else they can bond in their amusement, or lack thereof, of a mother who takes too many pictures.

I love Christmas time.  And the Christmas tree starts it off for me.