Christmas in November?

Growing up around the Cheely house, the Christmas season started in December. Well, at least not until after Thanksgiving. Once we kids started going to college, Mom used the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, when we were home, to have free labor in decorating the house. The same applied for the Christmas holidays - we would take down the decorations the day after Christmas, and sometimes even Christmas afternoon, before we all headed out.

I've stuck to that timing myself for several years, but I always hate to take down that beautiful tree after 3 weeks. And I'm sure you've noticed that our retail industry thinks October 15th is the beginning of the Christmas season.

So based on our schedule and excitement for Christmas, we decorated this weekend!!

Cole was SO excited and ready to help. First came the tree and he was such a great helper!

It was quite a process - but we finally got it up.

Next came the adult only part - the lights! Thankfully, Brice and I find this process easy - no arguing! Oh, but Cole always get to put on the star!!

And after a Sunday afternoon of ornamenting, with some help from our friend, Mac, this is the final product:

That's our Veggie Tales nativity sitting under the tree.

A concern of ours was the reaction Macie would have to the tree. This is her first Christmas and we didn't know how she would take to the decor. The process itself was a bit overwhelming for her. All the boxes and paper were quite the playground. The tree is a novelty for her. She likes to lay under it, paw at low branches, and occasionally swat at an ornament. I left a couple of unbreakables low enough for her to play with.

We had a great time getting the house ready and now we can enjoy the festiveness a bit longer than usual!

Merry Christmas, everyone!!