Decorating

As soon as Thanksgiving passes, we break out all our

Christmas decorations so we can enjoy them as long as possible.

Hudson was in charge of their nativity set.

I love his intentionality in placing each piece.

Got it just the way he wanted it!

I love Carter's painting of the nativity that he did at school, and hung it up in the dining room.

Carter was in charge of decorating their tree.

Again, working with the same level of intentionality : )

Kate doing the girls' tree.

Pinkalicious!

And, after 10 years of putting our heads together

to figure out how to put up Christmas lights outside, we finally have some!!

Josh's lovely assistant. She was definitely most interested in the ladder.

Blake came over in the middle of it all, and helped us finish it up. Plus, he got up on our roof with the backpack blower and blew all the leaves and pinestraw off.

Bummed I didn't get a picture of that, and the kids' faces watching him up there!!

Didn't they do good?! It makes me so happy every night when we light them.

It also makes me happy to see the Winter Wonderland that is across the street. This is my friend Hollie's house, and they do it UP every year. This year they've even added music :)

And, as a bonus, we can walk down to the corner and see her parent's property

that has just as much going on or more.

This signifies the beginning of the season for us because they usually start setting them up the beginning of November. It's certainly a highlight for my kids.

I caught this picture of them last year on the first night the lights were lit.

They're jumping up and down, cheering "It's Christmas! It's Christmas!"

(Actually, Hudson is calling it "Nis-mas" right now which is so cute to me)

It's the most wonderful time of the year : )