Decorating for Christmas

We did most of our Christmas decorating on Saturday. Rob and the boys started with the outside. Over the last ten years or so we have not regularly done much more than put a wreath out, but last year that changed. We realized that putting lights up would mean a lot to the heart of one of our children (of course they all enjoy the lights though). We decided that this was something that we needed to make happen. It is still very simple, but colorful (the kids picked out the lights!) and we love the wood Nativity that Rob's dad made for us (Rob did such a nice job of staining it!).

Most of our decor in the living room consists of the Christmas tree, stockings and a some toys/books, but not much more. It is tempting to make my home look like a Christmas wonderland, but we need to live here (all that stuff and all these kids would spell disaster in one form or another) and I want to be a good steward of what God has given us. Spending the time, energy, storage space, and money just does not make sense for our family.

I love seeing the kids discover their ornaments from years past, and how they choose to put them on the tree. Some are getting to be a bit more thoughtful about where they place their ornaments, but I love to see those lower branches weighed down by the many ornaments the little ones place on that ONE branch they chose to place all of theirs on.

My tree may not look "magazine perfect" but to me the "perfection" comes in the joy our family shares as we decorate for Jesus' birthday, and to see the pride in my children's eyes as they admire the tree that they helped decorate (moving the ornaments around after they went to bed would make them so sad). *Miss J is especially proud of the good job she did. She loves to sit right next to the tree and admire it.