Christmas Story, Thanksgiving Celebrations & More!

Every family has their own Christmas story. It could be some sort of tradition or something memorable that happened one year. Take for instance the year my mom and dad carted in the Christmas tree. That year we had a puppy, Patty, a fluffy Australian Shepherd in the house. After putting the tree up and decorating, Patty was curled up under it, and we spotted a mouse. It must have come in with the box of decorations. This must have been when I learned how to catch live mice from my dad! He caught it, took it outside and them carted all the boxes back to storage.

Then one year the worst possible thing happened. The Christmas ornaments mysteriously disappeared. Only to realize that when stacking boxes of decorations next to empty boxes from presents, they had all be carted to the dumpster. My dad still hasn’t lived down throwing out the ornaments. There were lots of other memories of putting up the tree, my parents having to wake me up on Christmas and all of the wonderful food my mom made during the holidays.

Now as an adult we have been making our own Christmas stories. One year I drug my feet on putting up a tree for fear Tana would destroy it. It’s always fun to add presents under the tree when no one is around and the kids search for whose it must be. But this year has already started with a new story. Yesterday I decided we’d put up the tree and decorate after dinner last night. I even dressed up a little thinking we’d take a few pictures while decorating! While Tate did homework, Tana began unpacking boxes of decorations. One more trip upstairs only to realize we didn’t have a Christmas tree. Last year the pre-lit tree only worked on one section.

Never say never, but owning a pre-lit tree has some downfalls. I complained during the entire holidays about the tree, and evidentially Ryan gave in too, because we must have gotten rid of the tree. I told the kids that I had good news and bad news. Good news was we were going to get a brand new tree; bad news was it wasn’t going up last night. So instead we assembled the small tree in their room and added lights. The ornaments are packed with the ones for the big tree, so we’ll decorate it later. I will never forget the feeling of realizing we didn’t have a tree to put up! So here’s to finding a plain old tree and we’ll decorate it with lights and ornaments!

Check out the family page for the guide to entertaining 50 people in a small space, plus the critters page on updated heifer photos, and more on the blog today!