Decorating for Christmas

So now that I have pictures uploaded, get ready for Christmas OVERLOAD! And by our standards, this year was a quiet one.

There are few things I love as much as decorating for the holidays. I usually drag everything out on Black Friday and have it up before Saturday can even think about getting here. This year, things were slightly different. We got up on Black Friday and I had Jay bring down some of the boxes, but we knew we'd be waiting at least a week before we got our tree. So we slowly decorated, but Hayden seemed to have a blast with it either way.

Hayden and daddy helped with the lights.

Hayden also helped mommy CAREFULLY unpack and unwrap the ornaments. As a control freak, this is the hardest part for me; as a mom, I know it's the most important, to let him help and be a part of it, even if it gives me hives.

Look at that mess I let him make! And, subsequently made him help clean up. It's all part of the growth process (for both of us).

One of the great things about a new house is figuring out where everything should go. Since we had a small artificial tree, and room for two trees (!) I decided "Hayden's tree" could go upstairs on the 2nd floor landing. After about a day, Jay decided it would look better in the guest room because you could actually see it out the window. Hayden picked some of his favorite of mommy's ornaments and wanted those on his tree so I obliged. We also put some of his first ornaments on there since we acquired about a half dozen for his first Christmas. That and some unbreakables and we were good to go!

He also picked his own tree topper, the Santa hat, but kept wanting to take it off to wear it.

We decided to use our "outdoor" lighted garland to give the stairs a little love, and I really loved how it turned out!

To be fair, this was 100% Jay's idea, but I love how the lights and garland filled up that space.

A lit tree is probably on my top five of "Very Favorite Things in the World". There's something about the way that the Christmas lights just make the whole room glow and look warm. Hayden loved to turn on the tree and garland every night, and if it was up to me we'd probably have the tree up until February.

We also decided that Jay and I needed some new stockings, so we picked some up and Hayden loved to try to take them down and put them on his feet! For some reason he understood that his stocking was for Santa, but it seemed perfectly logical that our stockings were actually for his feet.

This year we didn't go all out on the outdoor decor, but next year I think I'll give Clark Griswold a run for his money! We made it work with some wreaths, poinsettias, a few lights and our yard friends. Hayden was insistent upon plugging them in every night ("You do it, make them stand up!") and it never got old watching his face light up as Santa and Frosty got taller.