It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Putting up the Christmas tree...

These two were slightly less than helpful!!!

Colby's HAND tree tee

Whitney's FOOT tree tee

Sweet Celebration at church with Lynn, Holly, & Carol

BEFORE Haircut

AFTER Haircut

 The kids were ready in time (that might be a record for us!!!!), so we took a few pictures in front of the tree before leaving for church last Sunday morning...

We hope.....

He LOVED eating black bean soup!!!

Whitney's school had a sweet little musical last week titled, "The Greatest Gift of All," and she did an AMAZING job!!!  Dave was able to come for a little of it & entertained Colby.  It truly made my heart smile seeing her up there singing about Baby Jesus!

Colby entertaining himself (and us) at the doctor's office...

My $4 worth of flowers...long story!

 Here is our tree minus a few lights that have burned out (BUMMER!) with LOTS of pretty packages that I spent all week's nap times wrapping....

I can't hang the stockings on their holders because a certain someone tried to grab one and all I can imagine is an ER visit because of a major blow to the head (the holders are heavy duty iron)...so they're draped over the fireplace cover.  Takes away from some of the ambiance, but "safety first" in a toddler home!!!  

If you looked closely, you'd see that the very bottom portion of our tree has NO ornaments left because a puppy keeps grabbing them off and trying to play keep away from me while chewing them up---grr! :)  He's also had waaaaaay too many candy canes for a dog his age!!

Luckily, the lack of lights, ornaments, & stockings cannot take away from the reason we're celebrating...and that's what I keep trying to keep in the forefront of my mind and the kids' minds--that we're preparing for Baby Jesus' birthday.  Our Jesse Tree advent is going well & helping in this area...I will have to do a post about it later...hope everyone else is finding ways to keep Christ in Christmas during what can be a crazy-hectic time of year!

A cute nativity scene I saw on Pinterest

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."  1 John 4:9-10