Deck the Halls....

We have been swamped with sickness at our house for what feels like a month, but we managed to squeeze in a little holiday decorating in between illnesses! It's our family tradition every year to go up the canyon in Cedar City and cut down our own tree. Curtis started this when Taylor was just a year old and we have continued it since being back in Utah. I don't think we could ever give this tradition up if we wanted to because the kids love it and look forward to it each year. We have also made it tradition to stop at the Wal-mart in Cedar to grab some warm gear for the kids...this year we needed snow gloves and hats. We ran into a little perdicament this year due to all the snow they had gotten over Thanksgiving. When they plowed the roads, the snow piled up so high that there were very few places to pull off to go tree hunting. We picked the one spot we found, got all bundled up, realized it was freezing and the snow was too high for the kids or I to walk in, and sent Curtis on the hunt by himself!! He found one pretty quick that was unique and quickly cut it down. He showed me that it was actually 2 trees but they came together at the base...so technically only one! The kids had a blast running through the snow and throwing snowballs at each other and Maddox just decided to sleep through all of it in the baby Bjorn. Once we got it home, it took a little trial and error to get the tree straight since it tended to want to lean really far to once side! We got it all decorate...and redecorated several times since due to all the balls Boston has thrown at it. I love that it looks so different each year but still has all the familiar ornaments! It really felt like Christmas and the kids make sure to turn the lights on each morning when they wake up! The kids get so excited to go through the Christmas bins each year that the house looks like a war zone at first! Boston found the Santa and Snowman figurines and played pretend with them for an hour!
It has been so fun getting Christmas cards from people in the mail and adding them to the shelf over the stockings. I love seeing how friends and families have changed and grown and I love the feeling that Christmas lights and decorations bring to our home:)