Deck the Halls

There has definitely been a different feeling to Cal and Christmas this year.  He has been so excited about the decorations, the tree, the lights, etc.  Last year, he smiled and seemed vaguely happy about things but nothing like this year.  He has taken to saying "Oh man!" or "Whoa!" or "Wow!" about everything from looking at lights around the neighborhood to setting up his nativity.  He seemed genuinely excited to see what was in each tub as we got out decorations.  And he's learned some new words, too, like Santa and snowman.  We're looking forward to sharing all the excitement of this season with him as we get closer and closer to the big day.

The lights for this year

Yes, we are those people with one of the big, inflatable things in our yard.
Yes, I have made fun of "those" people in the past.  But, you know what?  Little
Man just loves that thing and that's good enough for me.

Cal was very excited to set up his nativity.  He loves moving the
figures around and looking at everything.  He is learning the names
of the figures slowly and we'll keep working on it, of course.

Final product!  Not sure how I ended up with these pictures backward.  Oh, well!

New ornament from Mommy and Daddy - this caused a bit of a meltdown.
We gave it to him without calculating how unhappy he would be when we wanted
to take it away to put on the tree.  

So excited that the tree is up and the lights are on!

He was our helper, bringing us the branches.

Yes, this is me winning the Mother of the Year Award.  What?  We were
thirsty from all that hard work!

Which one do you need?

Here you go!

Sorting the branches

This is one from Thanksgiving in Berne.