up with the tree!

matt usually does all of the heavy lifting for christmas but he is out of town and we have two christmas parties and a christmas concert next weekend so he and i decided that i should just go ahead and get out the christmas decorations without him (although i really hated that we weren't going to do it as a family this year).

i worked up a pretty good sweat getting everything upstairs from the basement but am happy to report that no one was injured (i think it helped that i made the kids wait until manning was napping) and i only lost two fingernails.

the kids made quick work of the non-glass ornaments and moved on to play with the christmas 'toys' - the nativity sets.

our finished tree

manning didn't know what to think when he woke up.  i was holding him on the couch while he was still waking up.  he had his head buried in my neck from carrying him and when he looked up and saw the tree, he quickly looked around the room to make sure that this was his house and that i was the one holding him.  and then he did it again.  it took him a few minutes to accept that this was something new in our house.  he has actually done way better than i was expecting (we don't call him "destructo" for nothing)!  in fact, he is the only one who has not broken an ornament!  the kids just love touching them and then regrouping 'theirs' together - on a single branch - which is when the breaks happen.  nothing that can't (and hasn't) be fixed with some glue.

to cap off our day, i let the kids watch "the first noel" dvd we have.  maddux fell asleep during the movie - at 6:30 - and the rest of the kids were in bed by 7pm.  bedtime comes a lot earlier when it is just mommy and we were all very tired from our week of visitors.

bring on christmas!!  love.