Christmas Decorations - Dec. 6, 2008

What a week it's been. I was very sick with a really bad head/chest cold the entire week. It started last Saturday night. I started to feel that tickle in my throat and some congestion. By Sunday afternoon I was feeling bad enough that I stayed home from church. The rest of the week was a blur. I was so congested and couldn't talk for more than a few sentences without coughing. Those of you who talked with me on the phone during the week know how bad I sounded. It was all I could do to get the kids to and from school, prepare meals, do dishes, and do laundry. I did nothing else. No vacuuming, dusting, mopping, picking up....nothing. I had also intended write and send out our family Christmas card/letter this past week but I basically lost the entire week and now I am really frustrated at how far behind I am. As of this morning we had not hung one Christmas decoration or even gotten our tree. So we spent all morning cleaning house - everyone pitched in. In the afternoon we went to Anderson Farm and cut our own Christmas tree. Did I mention how cold it's been the past week? I do not think the temp has been above freezing the entire week - we had a day or 2 where it was single digits. And the wind....the wind....the wind....it cuts through you like a hot knife through butter. Well, this afternoon was no exception. We all agreed on a tree very quickly.

Here are the kids in front of the tree we chose. Even though they gave out free hot chocolate we were FREEZING! I was happy that we were able to get an 8' tree instead of 6' like we had to get in NY. If it was up to me we would put a huge 18' tree right in front of our front door in our 2-story entry way and just use the back door the next 3 weeks. (I LOVE Christmas trees.)

We finally decided how to decorate our big picture window. We put our small artificial tree up loaded with white lights and with "presents" around the bottom. It would look nicer if I could've figured out how to turn the flash off on Brent's camera.

Here are 2 pictures from the outside. The tree is loaded with white lights which shine fairly brightly when it's dark outside. Again, the picture would've looked better without the flash.

That's all the decorating we've done so far. I still need to get a wreath for our front door and we have not yet decorated the tree we cut today. I'll try to finish decorating in the next 2 or 3 days.