Christmas Decorations Are The BEST!!

I love the Christmas season with all of the great decor out to help us get in the mood for the season!

This year I did not have a lot of time to get decorations up so I decided whatever I could get up in one afternoon would be all I would put out this year!
I always have the nativity scene out to remind us about the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

I love snowmen and have picked up a few throughout the years so I try to use them in each display of decorations around the house. I love adding lights to the decor at this time of year!

And of course the stockings for Santa to fill on Christmas morning representing the favorite teams of our house. Eli claimed Cowboys, CJ took UCLA, and Davis got the Lakers. We love sports in our house so our teams show up in many of the decorations we have around here.

Trent made sure the outside of the house was decorated too. The kids love having some of the inflatable items in the front yard along with the lights on the house at this time of year.

With all the fun decorations inside and outside the house, the most fun is decorating the tree with the boys. Every year they get to choose a new ornament to add to their collection and they keep their special ornaments in a box to put out each year. It is fun to watch them as they remember picking their ornaments from previous years.

It is funny each year because Eli gets embarrassed about some of the characters that he picked when he was younger and doesn't want to put them out. 

I have to convince him each year that he loved that show or character and it represents what he used to like not necessarily what he likes now and they still go on the tree. This year Davis got a Lakers basketball ornament, CJ picked up a Clone Trooper ornament, and Eli picked a karate rhino ornament.

We play Christmas music and dance around the house as we put ornaments on the tree.

We have to have an artificial tree because I am allergic to real trees so we have a small but fun pre-lit tree that we put up every year.

It started out looking like this........

And ended up like this........

We had a lot of fun.......we even got a delivery of some Christmas gifts while we were decorating!!

And now it is time to enjoy our wonderful Christmas vacation where we will relax and enjoy our family time together. I am sure we will see the boys relaxing and doing some of the things they enjoy like......

Playing the Wii........

Reading some books.......

 

And playing on the ipod touch........

Memories that I will will remember forever!!

Kids Christmas Performances Make the Season Great

I love watching my kids perform and enjoy how proud they are of their performance. The kids have been blessed with many opportunities to use their talents to make the season special!

This is CJ's first year playing the trumpet and he is enjoying learning to play this instrument. His school band had their first concert this Christmas where they played a few tunes and sounded pretty good for a beginning band performance.

After the band played their choir sang a few songs. They sounded great! Their choir teacher has really worked with them to help them sing properly and try songs that have two parts and are a little more advanced in the arrangement.

The following weekend was full of fun holiday activities. We started the weekend off with their Christmas piano recital. The kids can dress up to the title or era of their song so Eli wore reindeer antlers while he played the song "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer".

CJ and I did a duet for the recital which was very fun and special for me to get to play a song with him. We performed the song "Jingle Bell Rock".

The next day was the Kids Christmas Musical at church called "Christmas Tree Hang Ups". I had the opportunity to help with the drama team in the play which is always fun. They worked really hard to make sure the performance was great and to remind everyone watching that it is not just about presents but about Jesus' birth. We were reminded again about the true reason for the season. They did an amazing job!!

The set up for the play was a family's attic where the ornaments know it is close to the time where the family will be putting out the Christmas decorations. The stage was set up to be an attic with large boxes that the ornaments (the kids) would come out of to get ready for the big day.

CJ played the part of Frosty the Snowman who is part of the "christmasy"ornament collection in a family's ornament box.

Eli played the part of Tex. He is part of the "not-so-christmasy" ornament collection that the family has picked up from several vacations they have taken. Eli decided to give me a few different poses for his character!

They remembered all of their lines and did a fantastic job. 

Eli comes into the play when he comforts another non traditional hula girl (played by cousin Lillie) ornament that is feeling left out from the other ornaments.

CJ stays with the star and angel ornaments as they feel like they are the only deserving ornaments to be placed on the tree at Christmas.

They argue over who is more important to the family and who deserves to be placed on the tree.

They are later reminded by Joseph (played by good friend Trenton) that it doesn't really matter who is on the tree for decorations but that the real story of Christmas belongs in the nativity story with the birth of Jesus.

All of the ornaments finally agree to get along.

The kids had a great time working on the performance and were so excited to be able to do it.

It was a great way to start the season off right and to reinforce the meaning behind it all!

I hope you have a great Christmas and through all the fun activities you attend remember that in the center of it all was the birth of a baby named Jesus that came to save the world!