Christmas is here!

Our house is decked out in its Christmas finest. Patrick worked hard at setting up lights outside, adding garland to our porch and hanging wreaths on our door and garage. It all looks very pretty, especially at night. We have lots of lights indoors, too, and Mallory wakes up every morning enjoying the lights. And if they are not on, she makes sure she tells me to put them on. We only got a small tree this year, which is sitting on top of a bar table so our little guy one pull it over or eat the branches. I actually like it way up there. It will definitely help me keep my sanity by not constantly having to monitor the tree. We did have one ornament casualty this year...and it happened to be one that I had hand painted several years ago. I was very sad to see it go, but Patrick reminded me that our kids are still small and they still don't understand the concept of gentle, no matter how much breath I waste describing what is gentle everyday.

We're also doing some Advent readings and songs every Sunday morning, just like we've done the last two years. The kids are sitting through it all very well. Mallory is picking up on many Christmas truths, especially that the Angel says "Gloria!" because he was so excited Jesus was born. And except for thinking Joseph is Goliath, she can name the correct people in a manger scene. Mal's favorite carols, by far, are Away in the Manger and O Come All Ye Faithful.

Here are some pics from the past few days: