How I almost was the grinch this year

Every year since Scott and I were married we have received new Christmas ornaments and decorations from my mother-in-law. Without her I would not have ornaments to decorate my tree. I am grateful for these new additions that she sends each year. We have collected quite a fun assortment of ornaments in varying shapes, sizes and colors over the years. As the kids got old enough I have always let them decorate the tree.

As much as I love how our tree turns out each year, I have always thought that some day I would have my own tree with my own pretty matching ornaments that I decorate, by myself. I figured this would be when my kids are older and maybe even after they have left the house. I happened to mention this to my sister-in-law when we were at their house for Thanksgiving. She said that she happened to have an extra artificial Christmas tree that they weren't using that year if I wanted to use it. Just like that I had an extra tree, all to myself. The problem was I didn't have any ornaments to put on it. I spent several days scouring the stores picking out the perfect ornaments that matched perfectly with each other to decorate my tree.


All along I planned that I would have my tree upstairs and the kids would have their tree downstairs. I proudly set up my tree and decorated it how I wanted and it looked quite lovely. (I never did get a picture of it) The problem was that the other tree never got set up. My kids kept asking when their tree was going to get put up so that they could put their ornaments on it. Days passed and it never happened. Finally the Friday before Christmas I came to my senses. I told the kids that we weren't going to set up the other tree, but they could go ahead and add their ornaments to my tree.


The next hour was full of joyful children laughing and reminiscing about Christmas' past. Nearly every ornament held a memory for them. I was actually surprised at how much they remembered. I hadn't realized that this was such a special time for them and I am so glad that I got over my grinchiness and didn't miss out on sharing this special moment with them. Lesson learned. Their tree was prettier and had more meaning than any other tree I could ever come up with and decorate.

Other Christmas pictures....

Crazy kids in their new jammies for Christmas.
The kids always sleep in the same room on Christmas eve. This year they slept in Jordan's room.

Jordan and Scott made this cute bench for the girls

Last year Megan wanted a pink puppy for her birthday. I hunted all over and could never find one. A few days before Christmas she asked if I could look again. Luckily Santa Claus found one. She has hardly let it go since Christmas morning.

The one thing Kaylynn really wanted this year was an MP3 player.
Kimberly hit the jackpot and got lots of coloring and drawing stuff.

Christmas afternoon we headed up to Roy and Terri's house to play

We have really enjoyed our holidays this year. Scott has been able to take a little extra time off from work and it has been so nice to spend time together as a family. I am not looking forward to Monday morning when we have to get back to reality....