Trimming the Tree and Decking the Halls

Decorating the tree this year was so much fun. The kids are both at great ages for "helping" and they were both eager to do so.

Avery was so cute. She is always willing to say "cheese" for the camera.

I managed to snap this picture of both of them in front of the tree with my phone before we got started decorating. :-)

Every year we let our tree sit in a bucket of water to get a good drink over night and then Jake brings it in the next day for me to decorate. I always get it trimmed up and put the tree skirt around it and take a picture so that I have an un-decorated picture and then a decorated picture. This was just something I did the first year and have continued ever since. This year, with having all of our stuff in storage, we had to try and dig through our storage locker to find our Christmas boxes. We found the 2 I thought we would need that had all the stockings, ornaments and lights in them so we grabbed those 2 and made our way back home to decorate. Once we got home and I started going through stuff, I realized we were missing something... the tree skirt. Jake's Great Grandma made each of her grandchildren a tree skirt several years ago, even before Jake and I got married. Jake's mom held on to it and gave it to us the first Christmas after we were married. It's really special and means a lot to us. I'm so bummed we didn't get it from storage, but we made due with this Christmas blanket I happened to have in one of the boxes.

I put the lights on and then Jackson and Avery helped me hang the ornaments on the tree. Avery is still a little bit to small to really help but she tried her best and it was really cute. Jackson is really at a great age for helping. This was really the first year he could actually help, we just had to work on getting each ornament on a different branch. Ha.

They really enjoyed helping... that is until Jackson had been unwrapping ornaments for quite a while and finally said 'I'm tired from this" and headed back to watch t.v. in our bed. Ha!

Once we finished up, Avery was ready and willing to take a picture in front of our tree. Jackson... not so much. 

And here is our 2015 cute little Douglas Fir all decorated.

And a picture of my little nativity set. I've had this since around 2003. I used it as a centerpiece on the table this year along with a cute little table runner that my sister made a couple years back.

So that wraps up our Christmas decorations this year. I wasn't quite sure how a tree and any of our decorations would fit in our condo, or if we'd even be able to get to our Christmas boxes in storage, but it all worked out and I'm pretty pleased with how it all came together. :-)

And just for fun, here are all of our Christmas Trees from 2007-2015!!

Our 2015 Christmas Tree

This past Saturday, we took the kids to our favorite little Christmas Tree stand for the 9th year in a row. Sullivan's Tree Farm is a local tree lot that we've gone to every year since the first Christmas after we got married. They always have beautiful trees and we love going there every year.

We are still in the tiny little condo so we knew we wanted to get a small tree. In the past we've always gotten a Noble Fir, but this year they weren't able to get any Noble Firs. They order them from Oregon and they were unable to get them this year. :-( So we asked for the next closest tree to a Noble Fir and they said a Douglas Fir was very similar. They happened to have the cutest, most perfect little Douglas Fir there and it didn't take us long to decide this was the perfect tree for us this year.

It was just the perfect size for the kids too!

The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Sunny and 70 degrees! I'll take it.

This was Avery's first year to actually get to run around in the trees. She thought it was pretty fun!

Jackson brought along the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar stuffed animal from school to have his picture taken with. :-) His class is passing around the caterpillar from friend to friend and while he is with each child we have to write a little paragraph about what we did with him while he was visiting us. It was a fun little homework assignment. :-)

So we got our little tree trimmed up and headed home to let it sit in a bucket of water over night on our patio. Then Sunday evening Jake brought it in and the kids and I decorated it. I'll post all about the decorating tomorrow. :-)

Do you all have a tradition of going to a favorite tree stand or tree farm?

Our 2015 Christmas Card

Our Christmas Cards went out in the mail earlier this week, so I thought I'd go ahead and share it here as well! 

Merry Christmas!

Love, The Smiths

 

What Jackson is Getting For Christmas This Year

Jackson was also fun to buy for this year! We tried to scale back a little bit on his gifts because we had just gotten him the Power Wheels Camaro for his birthday and that was a rather expensive gift. However, I wanted him to at least have the same amount of items to open on Christmas morning as Avery has. So we just tried to make sure his gifts weren't quite as expensive and luckily he's still at an age where we can get away with that.;-)

I think this will probably be his gift from Santa. It's a Paw Patrol Headquarters! He loves these kinds of toys and he loves Paw Patrol so I'm sure this will be a hit.

Like I said in Avery's gift post, Jackson also got a cool desk chair for coloring at or eating a snack. I really think they will love these and they'll come in handy too. :-)

One thing Jackson has really been into lately is legos! He loves building with legos, so we got him this giant box of legos for Christmas.

And because he LOVES playing with play-doh, we got him this whole play-doh fun factory!

He's at a good age to introduce board games. He got Hi-Ho Cherry-O for his birthday and really enjoys playing that, so we decided to get him a few age-appropriate board games for Christmas. We got him Connect 4, Trouble and Hungry Hungry Hippo!

He's also getting a couple pair of pajamas. Sadly, he's starting to grow out of his 5t pajamas and I had to buy him "big kids" sized pajamas this time!

He's also getting a suitcase for our big Disney trip next year which I think he will really like. I think he will get a kick out of having his "own" suitcase!

And then lastly, this will be something for both kids to open. We got them a dual portable dvd player for the car. We thought this would be great for the long drive to Disney World next year and any other trips we decide to take. :-)

I'm so excited for Christmas morning this year. I think the kids are both at such great ages! It will be a lot of fun opening presents!

What Avery is Getting for Christmas This Year

Avery was so fun to shop for this year. Here is what Avery is getting!

Santa is bringing her this pink kitchen!!! I think both Avery and Jackson will enjoy this toy (even though it's pink).

We also got her some play food to go with her kitchen.

We got her this Fisher Price Disney Princess Castle that I'm pretty excited about! She already has a little people Cinderella and Prince Charming. I'm hoping to get a few more of the characters for her stocking!

She's getting this Minnie Mouse chair for when we're out and about. Jackson got a chair this past Summer but Avery was still a little bit too small. So this will be nice to have this coming Summer.

And speaking of chairs. We got each of the kids one of these little desks! They have storage under the seat and we thought they'd be so cute to color at or have a snack. Jackson is getting a Ninja Turtle one.

Then because Avery LOVES Minnie Mouse right now, we got her this giant Minnie Mouse Stuffed animal. I'm not even sure how I'm going to wrap this thing, but it was just too cute to pass up.

And we also got them each a couple pair of pajamas. This set came with a robe which was perfect because Jake, Jackson and I all have a robe and Avery always wants to wear one too. So now she'll have her own. :-)

And lastly, a more practical gift that she probably won't care about for a few years is her very own suitcase. We are taking the kids and my parents on a trip to Disney World next year and I thought it would be fun and convenient if the kids each had their own luggage. So we found these on Black Friday and got them each a suitcase of their own. :-)

So that's what Avery is getting this year!

Our Visit With Santa 2015

We took the kids to see Santa last night and it went pretty much just as I suspected. 

I really talked up Santa this year. Jackson was all hyped up to go see him. He was really excited and was going to tell him all about what he wanted for Christmas this year. He was even going to tell Santa what Avery wanted because Avery couldn't tell him herself. Ha! 

So when we got to the mall and saw Santa down on the first floor, both kids got so excited and took off for the escalator. They couldn't get to him fast enough. So I thought maybe things might go better than I expected.

We always go on a weeknight to avoid the long wait and we've had a lot of success with that. We got down there and there was only one little girl in front of us, which was great, except that she was about Avery's age and she cried the whole time she was on Santa's lap. I'm afraid this may have made both of our kids uneasy about Santa because when it got to be our turn, Avery wouldn't go near him and Jackson decided he was going to be "shy". He wouldn't talk to him or even give him a high five. Jake tried setting him on Santa's lap and Jackson would have no part of it. We even tried hugging Santa ourselves to show the kids that it was okay, but they didn't care. Avery cried when we even got her close to Santa! 

So we thought, lets just see how they would do if we were in the picture as well. I sat next to Santa and sat Avery on my lap and she still cried. Jackson did okay as long as he was on his Daddy's lap and the photographer even got a smile out of him at one point. Avery was still very uneasy and though she forgot about him for a brief minute and stopped crying long enough for us to get a picture, she then turned her head and saw him again and then burst into tears! Ha. I'm glad we got a good picture though, even if Jake and I had to be in it this year. Hopefully next year will go a little better.

And here are all of our Santa pictures from 2011-2015!

Linking up here:

Friday Five

I'm linking up with April today for Five on Friday!

  I just can't believe it's already December! How did that happen so fast?

 

 Jake and I just found the show "Fixer Upper" on HG TV and we are addicted. We don't have cable right now while we're living in the condo, but they have the first season on Netflix and we are loving it. I'm sure it's because we are in the middle of our own fixer upper, but it's also relatable as a majority of the houses bought are between $100,000 and $300,000. Some are even bought for under $100,000. Chip and Joanna are just so cute too! Anyone else addicted to this show??

 We were able to get all of our Christmas shopping done for the kids on Thanksgiving day. Between shopping around online that morning and then finishing up with going to Walmart that evening at 6:00, we managed to get the kids completely done! I hope to write a post soon on what our kiddos will be getting this year. Stay tuned. :-)

Yesterday, I finally made my final decision on a light fixture for over our stairwell. I had been eyeing a similar light on Home Depot's website but it was out of stock, and had been for quite a while. I tried searching for it online at other stores with no luck. Finally I found a similar light fixture on wayfair.com that was a little more money, but not enough of a difference to keep me from pulling the trigger. Plus it was no tax and free shipping!! I just love it!!

We hope to see Santa in the next few days and hopefully go pick out our 2015 Smith Family Noble Fir. Time is limited these days, but we will hopefully be able to squeeze in a visit with Santa and pick out our tree soon!

Have a great weekend!!