It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 In my hubbies mind, any day after Thanksgiving is acceptable for Christmas decorations...I am pretty sure I could leave them up year round (if I didn't have kids, a small house and dogs and people wouldn't think I was nutso).  

So, yesterday was the day.  We went to Beau Jo's last year on our tree day for lunch in Idaho Springs, but yesterday I had to work mid day covering for my partner, so that plan was scratched and instead we checked out the Arvada Beau Jo's and went to our favorite tree lot.  We have been going there ever since I was pregnant with Blake.  It is a small biz owned by a mother/son and now grandson and I love it.  

Lunch was great.  Pizza, salad and a Shirley Temple for the lil' big man...

and plenty of olives for P

After lunch, we headed to our spot and picked out the perfect tree

seriously sweet to his lil' sister MOST of the time...

they are all doing their inspections ;)

oh, so excited!

this is the owners' son and grandson, this is the first year HE has cut our tree

Blake, found a tree for his fish and his frog.  He wanted to put it in the tank BUT we convinced him, its probably not the best idea so he came up with Plan B - keep reading!

and drove home during an amazing CO sunset

Once we got the tree home, it was time to decorate it!  I honestly thought B would get excited, do some ornaments and quit.  He lasted as long as we did!  He was so fun to watch.  He carefully examined each ornament.  On our family ornaments he would stop and find HIS name.  

He really enjoyed helping and of course, made it super fun!  He always makes us laugh and last night was no exception... Blake pulled out an old ornament from when I was little and daddy read it to him "Kendra, 1990" to which Blake replied "yeah, that was when mom was 90".

He even got to put the angel on top!

So, our family tree was up and it was time for one of my favorite traditions with my kids...putting up their tree in their rooms!  We got each of the kids a pre-lit tree, just their size for some of the ornaments they make, their favorites and some customized ornaments based on their favorite things that I made.  My plan is to make a set each year of the kids favorite things...honestly, this year I was kinda thinking I would bag the idea, just lots of work.  I am SO glad I didn't!  When Blake got his little mini ornaments out and saw Batman, a shark, a diver, maverick and a fighter jet he was THRILLED!  I explained the plan and he is making me a list for this year...Annakin and Luke are already on it!

his concentration is hysterical!  Our hooks wind around in a circle and he threads the branch into every loop...

maverick and fighter jet from last year!

He LOVES his tree and is very excited to get to sleep with it every night until New Years!

So, that is a look at our traditions of Christmas Decorating...whats yours?

**oh, and Piper crashed HARD at 6:30, so she missed the decorating fun but don't worry...she has a tree for her room complete with silver and pink and tons of non-breakable ornaments ready to be decorated tomorrow while B is at school!