The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Every year we put up a fresh tree. Scott is finally seeing my way of thinking when it comes to tree selection. It needs to be full, but not too full, and have "shelves" for perfect ornament placement. This year, our tree was perfect! And, I remembered to keep water in it on a regular basis. Our living room smelled Heavenly for three weeks. Scott is such a good sport to take care of the setting up and lights. It is always so fun to decorate it as a family.

Chandler did a great job dividing the ornaments and checking the lights. He even hid the pickle (for good luck) this year. I didn't find it until I put all of the ornaments and lights away!  He loves talking about when and where we got each ornament and the special story behind it. When he put the Disneyland globe on this year he made it a point that we haven't been back.  Someday...

 Notice the lack of ornaments on the lower branches and missing presents? Yep, we had a curious 1 year old this year. Watson did a pretty good job leaving the tree alone--except for the little red basket light covers and one red beanie baby teddy bear. He loved to look at the lights and it seemed he knew the tree meant something special.

 Christmas Day came on the 27th for us. Chandler was at his other house until then so things were pretty relaxed.  He had a pretty big pile of presents and it was fun to see his excitement while he unwrapped everything. He got some big gifts from Santa and Mom and Dad--a new unicycle, a microscope, and a giant K'Nex roller coaster. The next day I didn't see Chandler until about 2:00 pm. He holed himself up in his room to build the roller coaster and "survived" on the candy in his stocking.

 Watson got a slide and scooter from Santa and some other fun trucks and toys from Mom and Dad. The candy was new and exciting and if you really want to be his best friend, just give him a ring pop.

 Nana Wood gave Chandler a telescope. He was so excited to use it! He put it together that night and set it up in the kitchen to look at the moon out the window. He did discover, though, it is best used outside.

 I surprised Scott with a gift for an introductory scuba dive at the Homestead Crater. He loves snorkeling and has always wanted to learn how to dive so I thought he could try it out in some warm water nearby. We stayed at the Homestead a couple of weeks later for our Anniversary and he did the dive then. He loved it and is planning to take additional courses to get certified. I may join him and then plan a trip to Mexico, or something.

It was fantastic to spend some quiet time for Christmas this year. We didn't have many places to go so we really enjoyed our time as a family.

We hope your Christmas was as nice as ours!