Christmas Happenings, Part 1

Christmas Happenings in our corner of England ...

Since we were planning to be in London for Thanksgiving*, we put up our Christmas tree the week before Thanksgiving and we've enjoyed every minute of it!  This was our first year with an artificial tree and we haven't regretted the switch one bit.  From garage to fully assembled, it was hardly thirty minutes, and it was pre-lit!!  It was fun to focus on the ornaments and snacks instead of stabilizing the tree and stringing lights for an hour while the kids grow more impatient by the minute!

The lower half of the tree ended up being heavily decorated with the non breakable ornaments and Bard hung the others near the top.  I thought I'd go back and more evenly distribute the ornaments layered on at the little boys' height, but they enjoyed them being at their eye level so much that we left them there.  The only problem we had was the low ceilings of our English house meant our tree barely squished in and we didn't have any room left for Memaw's angel.

Our kids love dressing up and we had so much fun reenacting the Christmas Story.  Emerson took his shepherd part seriously with a PVC staff and small dagger tucked into his belt.  Jackson was the innkeeper and backup shepherd and Mary and Joseph filled in as extra angels :)  I got the part of Caesar Augustus and the main angel.

Grandma's first Christmas box arrived in early December and was met with much excitement!  She made each of them a Christmas themed book with lots of coloring and puzzles. 

They each got a stocking with their letter on it.  It was like Christmas morning watching them discover crayons, markers, paint, window crayons, stickers ...

The little guys got nativity ornaments to color ...

A unanimous favorite was definitely the flashlights!

I think these were meant to be straws, but our kids much preferred the high pitched whistle that comes out when you blow them :)

The next day was rainy and gray and provided the perfect backdrop for the hours of fun the kids had with their new books and art supplies.  It was a wonderful day! 

Emerson loved his window crayons ...

He wasn't the only one ....

Jackson has just recently picked up writing his letters and used this paint set up in one day!  (hint, hint, Grandma :)

Oh, markers, wonderful markers!!

At night, the drawings from the window crayons really brightened up the house ... especially since it gets dark at 4:00.  

The next day while the big kids used the stickers to decorate Christmas cards, Emerson decorated his face :)

And one more, because that face is just too cute!!

 

 * ah, Thanksgiving ... we made it to London, but didn't last for long as the little boys got sick.  We returned home Friday morning and one by one we battled through the flu that lasted for a week and a half.  Oh boy, a week we'd prefer to forget!