Getting Ready for Christmas

The Christmas Season is upon us!  And the boys were very eager to dust off the Christmas decorations that had been stored away and make the house a bit more festive.

We've always had an artificial Christmas Tree.  It's probably one of those things that we don't know what we're missing having never had a real one.  Maybe someday we'll get a real tree, but for now the artificial one works just fine.  The boys helped put the branches on and then eagerly got to work decorating the tree.  It looked fantastic, at least it did until William started climbing up it, knocking the ornaments down and bending the branches.  Ahhh..that's just one of the many joys of having a cat whose part Tasmanian Devil!

This year, I bought a special ornament for Baby Slominski #3.  When I saw it online, I just had to have it.  It was the perfect ornament for our future little one.

"Wished  for...  Hoped for...  Prayed for..."

A first for us this year was putting up the giant nativity set that I received from my mom.  All the figurines were hand made out of ceramic so I had been waiting until the kids were old enough to not destroy them.  And they of course assured me that that time was now.  We had fun putting out all the people and animals, but Owen had his mind set on exactly where each piece should go.  So once Cole and I were done helping setup, Owen went back and moved each figurine to where he wanted them.  He sure can be particular about certain things...I wonder where he could possibly get that from?!?

Owen trying not to smile to big because of his very loose tooth

Cole holding Joseph with two hands

The boys showing off the figurines

When my Grandma Klein downsized, she was rehoming some of her special treasures she had collected over the years.  One of them was this house.  My mom had made it for her back in 1982.  And now it'll bring some extra special Christmas cheer to our home.

While we've had an Advent Wreath for some time, this year the boys were much more interested in it.  They've both been learning about Advent in our Family Faith Formation classes at church.  And of course they like watching the flames flicker inside the brightly colored glass.  We did have a small incident with the pink votive holder.  I had searched high and low and could not find it anywhere.  A couple days later, it appeared in the basement shattered to bits.   Somehow Cole found it first and accidentally dropped it.  But not to fear, a replacement has been ordered and is on its way!

Along with decorating the inside, we put a bit of holiday cheer outside.  Owen wasn't too interested in freezing his tushie off, so Cole, Shane and I endured the cold to get the outside Christmas tree up and decorated.

"Yay!  Christmas is coming!"

Now we are officially set for Christmas!