Oh Christmas Tree…

Ben and I debated whether we should go the live tree or fake tree route this year, but we’ve had a live tree every year since we we’ve been married, so we couldn’t bring ourselves to do the fake one yet. We drove over to the oh-so-picturesque Home Depot to pick out our noble fir.

When you have two kids two and under, the thought of driving super far away to cut down a tree is not appealing. Someday though, I’d like to do it that way.

There is such convenience of loading your heavy tree on a cart, wheeling it over to the check out. At least we didn't go to Wal-Mart. I really don't like that store. Why doesn't Target sell Christmas trees?? I love Target.

Christmas lights were 99 cents since it was Black Friday, so I stocked up on a bunch to decorate the outside of our house (we didn't have it in us last year, so this was our first time with outside lights). Home Depot even handed out free hot chocolate and candy to keep customers happy. See the tree positioning on the car? Ben put his kayak straps to good use.

Eli was super cute while we were decorating the tree (Charlie was napping). He put on his Eli santa hat from last year and sang Jingle Bells over and over. It was a different story when I went outside to put up lights around our house - he wanted to come be with me (Ben was off jogging), but he cried almost the entire time we were out there together. My solution was to have him watch through the screen door's window (the storm screen was down, so it wasn't too freezing). It was much harder than I expected to put the lights up outside. Seven hundred lights later, I feel like it barely looks decorated, but that's okay. It's good for now.

The next day, the magic of it all hadn’t worn off yet. Eli must have said “Ho ho ho!” about 20 times that morning. I loved it.

Yesterday afternoon I ran around a stretch of shops near our house to put up posters for our ward’s annual nativity exhibit, coming up this weekend. When I came home, I found Ben standing on a chair, blowing bubbles for Eli. I can’t believe it was warm enough at the end of November for them to be outside without jackets (well, it was a little chilly, but Eli had no interest in wearing his coat).

I love the magic of bubbles. Kids seem to have a universal love for them.

The picture below shows how skinny this kid is. I have to put his pants on the tightest option with the buttons in the waistband. He needs to eat more. But somehow his diet of cheerios, deli turkey, and fruit seems to keep him going.

Of course there’s always a little attitude mixed in with the bubble happiness when a 2-yr-old is involved. “No, I don’t want to wear my hoodie!” he kept saying, despite my efforts to have him put it on.

Gotta love the body language in this one. :)

My convincing strategies weren’t strong enough. The red hoodie stayed hanging on the back of the patio chair. I figured if he got cold enough, he’d eventually put it on.

With no hard feelings after our hoodie debate, he invited me to come play in his “house” under the playset. Ben was inside our real house at this point, getting Charlie who had woken up from his nap. This was Eli’s front door -

“Come on in, Mama!”

So I did. I love this boy so much.