Pick a branch... but just one branch...

Our first Christmas activity of the year was creating our paper chain countdown.

Jane helped with cutting.

Megan attempted but couldn't figure out the scissors. She resorted to ripping instead.

She did better helping put together the chain.

I wrote scripture references on each using my friend Meghann's advent calendar list--each day we tear off one link and read a story about Jesus. It's been really nice to have that focus this season.

We did manage to get our tree up, though later than I had hoped. As per tradition, Chris first secured the tree to the table while the girls looked on.

Over the next day or two, I managed to get the lights put on, after extensive effort from Chris and others to get the light strings back into a useable condition. Funny side story--We took out the middle section of the tree to make it easier to light the top. When Megan saw it, she ran to me panicked, yelling, "Mom! Mom! Dad broke the tree!"

We can no longer deny it--we have two major talkers.

In favor of simplicity, we only have a handful of ornaments this year, all plastic. That way I don't have to care too much if the girls get a hold of a few. It also made it really easy to let them decorate the tree themselves, although we did have to rearrange just a few of Megan's placement choices to keep the branch of bending out of shape.

Hopefully we'll get Ben's stocking from my aunt within the next week or so. Before Christmas, she said!

To me, it's really the tree that makes Christmas. Chris promised we can invest in a much nicer artificial tree for next year. And once we're passed crawling age, real trees all the way. So excited.