Decorating for Christmas

This is the first year since before Hannah and Owen were born that were ready to put up our Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend.  There excitement over the start of the Christmas season could have been something to do with our motivation (and the fact that there isn't as much time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year).  When Hannah saw that our tree had been pulled down out of the attic (it was still closed up in the tree bag) she proclaimed, "IS IT CHRISTMAS?!!"  I knew with exuberance this was going to be an excited Christmas season for sure!

Hannah gets a head start on the decorating by helping Daddy outside while Owen finished his nap.

Hannah finds some new friends:

 She was so excited about our snowman and santa blow ups.

 Her smile springs to life as our snowman does!

Our snowman got lots of high fives, hugs, and kisses on this day!  

It was precious and so funny at the same time!

Time to put up the Christmas tree:

This is the first year that Hannah and Owen were able to help put the ornaments on our Christmas tree.  They pulled out and unwrapped every ornament in the box sometimes going much faster than we could keep up with.  I had to start giving them other jobs to do like pretending to be the UPS man and deliver and stack the empty ornament boxes in front of the fireplace.  They loved searching the box for "their" ornaments.  Hannah would say, "oh, it's pink so it must be mine!".  Owen fell in love with Santa on the lawnmower and our ornament from last year of Santa on a fire truck that pulls in and out of the fire station.  These are his favorites!

 Owen digs into the box of ornaments.  He is such a hard worker and was ready to help!

 Hannah and Owen compare the ornaments they took out of the ornament box.

 The first ornaments get placed on the tree.

 Sharing the stories behind our ornaments was fun.  Hannah and Owen were super excited about these Disney ornaments from when Chris and I got engaged in Florida.

 Owen loves that he can open and close the garage doors on this fire house ornament...our special family ornament from last year.

 Owen was excited to finally pull out the Mickey's Clubhouse ornament.  He has been eyeing on my dresser for a couple of weeks.  They both LOVE everything Mickey and Minnie these days.

 Daddy and Owen search for the perfect spot.

Our special ornament for this year-2013.  It represents our trip to Disney World with all of our family and Hannah, Owen, and Wesley's first trip to Disney. We definitely made memories that we want to remember forever!