It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The tree went up tonight! It was a bit challenging with an extra set of toddler hands, but after just one broken ornament (luckily not one of the really sentimental ones) we have a finished product. Our tree has never been one of those "theme" or "one color" trees ~ it is a mish-mash of memories from childhood, our married life, and now our life with Kylie. We add at least one ornament each year, usually picked out at Callahan's Nautical Gifts in Calabash on our trip to Sunset Beach, or at the Southern Christmas Show. This year there were several additions, some that we bought for Kylie last year, a few that we picked up in China, the ones we bought at the beach this year, and the first in a series of 10 from Kylie's "Lianjiang sisters" in the yearly ornament exchange we have set up.

The first ornament that went on the tree was Kylie's that came from Caroline. She really liked playing with the little tree ornament (and kept trying to smell it after we smelled the trees on the farm Saturday) so it was a challenge to get her to put it on the tree and actually leave it there! Finally we were successful! I love decorating our tree because so many of the ornaments we have are connected to memories! Ian and I always have watched either Rudolph or Charlie Brown Christmas (tonight we opted for Charlie Brown because there were parts of Rudolph that scared me as a child), sipped egg nog, and "quizzed" each other on the origin of each ornament as we put it on the tree. We laugh at funny memories, smile as we remember loved ones that are no longer with us, and tonight we had the added joy of sharing this tradition with our daughter.

After about an hour we were finished. Kylie is quite interested in the lower ornaments and I'll say that I'm glad Ian has the first shift tomorrow on "guarding the tree" while I'm at preschool! After the first year Maya left it alone, so we'll have to see how well we do training Kylie to keep her hands off...

"Wow, we did a good job Mommy! Now can I go ni ni?"

Oh, and in case you didn't hear, the Hokies got another shot at BC in the ACC championship game and this time decided to play the entire game. We were celebrating on Sunday (cause we had to tape the game Saturday due to our Christmas tree excursion ~ Ian and I were up until 1:30 Sunday morning watching it before we went to church)!

Yay VT!!! We'll be glued to the TV at 8pm on January 3rd!