Our Christmas Tree

This week we decorated our Christmas tree. I love this time as our tree is a family tree and we each have ornaments from the years previous. Growing up I was always given an ornament from that year and Billy's family had the same tradition. We give our girls an ornament each year as does a few of their grandparents. We all look forward to pulling out the box and going through the ornaments and reflecting on memories.

This is me passing out ornaments to the girls; we each make piles and then decorate the tree with our own ornaments.

Syrah made this hand print her first year; she was only two months old at the time; it is amazing to see how tiny her little hand was!

Here is Sadie's baby hand print; she was probably only about 6weeks old when she made this. Now her entire baby hand fits in her palm!

Billy and the kids decorating.

Sadie peeking out!

Syrah peeking out. She did great this year with decorating and only needed help on the ones high up!

At the end Dad always puts up the star. This is a new star this year (which I am very excited about), but it has a little heavy!

Before we light the tree up we make hot chocolate and turn off all the lights. I could have sat their for hours!!

Yesterday the girls and I talked about the reason for the Christmas tree. Although we talk about this each year it is a good reminder as to the truth behind all the traditions and can serve as a great history lesson as it still surprises me that the first public tree in American was not seen until around 1912! The greatest truth still remains that this season can easily become about what is under the tree, when really the tree itself and the symbol that it is, is the ultimate gift.