Christmas Season Kickoff

When a lot of people are busy hitting the stores on Black Friday (no thanks), we are always chomping at the bit to unearth our Christmas decorations. This year was no different.

We relaxed this morning, playing with Nora, but then got ready and went out to a tree farm to pick out this year’s Christmas tree. The weather wasn’t PERFECT like last year (hey, that was an anomaly). It was slightly rainy and overcast, but the temperatures were decent, so we took advantage since the temps are going to plummet the rest of the weekend.

We again met up with my brother and his wife (and their baby) to do the tree hunting.

We were really pushing Nora’s naptime, so she spent most of the time being a tired girl.

I have never in my life had this much trouble finding a Christmas tree. We walked one whole side of the farm and had found nothing. So then we crossed over to the other side to see if our luck was better there. The farm was busy!

We soon found trees that fit our standards, so cut down two of them.

The guys dragged the trees back to the base so we could pay for them, and while we were waiting in line, we decided to attempt to convince Nora to stand by the candy cane to get her photo. In her mood, she was not having it. But then, as fate would have it, a mother walked up with her two little girls (the youngest probably less than a year older than Nora) and had them stand and take a photo by the candy cane—and both of them happily obliged. I PLAYED THIS UP LIKE YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE.

“Look, Nora. You see those two little girls taking their picture with the candy cane? Isn’t that fun? See, she’s saying cheese! You like to say cheese. It’s their turn right now, but do you want to have a turn next?”

Her immediate reaction was a simple “no,” but a second later… “Yesss.” When the little girls left moments later, I plopped Nora on the ground and she happily ran up to the candy cane and let me take her picture. MULTIPLE TIMES. Too bad we didn’t have this same luck when I was trying to take her pic next to the pumpkin at the pumpkin patch last month! :)

We had our trees trimmed and bailed, then loaded them up to take them home.

Nora was way past due for a nap, so we put her down and then got to work getting the tree into the house.

We kinda underestimated the size of the tree out in the field, haha. We brought it in and the top (just one long branch as the tip) was scraping the ceiling. Oops. A quick trim here or there and it’s all good, but A LOT bigger than last year.

A little after 3:00, I went upstairs and woke Nora because we wanted to get her back on her regular sleeping schedule after 1) being up late last night and 2) being late to nap today. I brought her down with promise of a surprise, and she perked up and was thrilled when she saw the tree in the family room and I told her she could help with the lights!

She also had a grand ol’ time telling me what color each of the “balls” were. :)

We also brought out her Little People Nativity Set and Michael removed all of the pieces for her, telling her about each one. In this pic, she’s telling Michael that this one is the “mama” (as in Mary, obviously)… but that’s really a wise man. HA!

She is loving the nativity set, though. She spent the better part of tonight with the baby Jesus in the cart (meant to be pulled by the mule), with Mary pushing it like a stroller across the floor. I was apparently in her way a few times, because she’d bump into my foot and say, “Coos me” (Excuse me) over and over. I love this kid.

After the tree was decorated and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, it was time for Nora to go to bed. But not before we posed for a few “cheeses” with our best girl…

We can already tell that this Christmas season is going to be our best one yet.