Decorating the Christmas Tree

This past Friday, we decorated our house and tree for Christmas!  I absolutely love living Christmas through the eyes of my kids.  Their excitement and awe for everything is so much fun!  Here are a few pictures and videos to document our evening...

The kiddos got the "Little People" nativity set up while Daddy put the lights on the tree

They love playing with it throughout the Christmas season (and are currently playing with it as I write this!) which provides the perfect opportunity to talk about the real meaning of Christmas.

Summer is such a great ornament hanger...and literally hung more ornaments than any of the rest of us!  (Yes, our Christmas tree was a bit "bottom heavy" on ornaments this year!!)

Colton had a little trouble figuring out how to get the "hook" over a branch but enjoyed trying for a few ornaments anyway...;)

 Here is a little video of the kids hanging ornaments...

Summer set up the more realistic nativity as the "first present" under the tree, and we talked about how God giving us Jesus is the best present, and the reason why we give presents.

Colton hanging an ornament....

 Unfortunately Colton was most excited about "throwing" the ball-shaped ornaments...and didn't understand that they aren't "balls" lol!!!  After a great baseball throw of a particular one, we decided that this year the girls would finish decorating the tree while the boys took a break to go pick up pizza for dinner ;).  It was the perfect solution!

Boys ready to go get pizza!

Getting pizza from "Toppers" pizza

Mommy and Summer finished off the tree :)  I was amazed at how much Summer loved it--she never lost interest!

After pizza, we had the Oreo pie mommy made.  (Summer was looking forward to the "special dessert" all week!)

Colty demolishing his piece.

After dinner we enjoyed looking at the ornaments...

learning how to "point-to" and not "touch" the ornaments we like ;)

Starting our advent calendar...homemade and given to us by my Grandma Kirkwood, and holds special memories for me as it is the same one I used when I was a kid!

We then turned out the lights so we could enjoy the tree...and with the music going resulted in an impromptu Dance party!

 Here is a little video of the kids starting out the dance party...



Then a few more videos when Mommy and Daddy joined in the fun...





And a few pics of Summer and Daddy dancing...so sweet :)

Daddy and Summer dancing...

Both had fun doing all sorts of moves...

lots of smiles!

love these two!!