Tree Lights

Disclaimer - this post was supposed to go up last night. But as my night of editing wore on, Pete convinced me to go to bed, and leave it to the morning. So, pour a cup of coffee (I did!) and enjoy!

It's been a packed week. And judging by the calendar, it's not slowing down anytime soon. Which is okay, because it's Christmastime.

Last week, the temperatures dipped and we bundled up and headed into town for the Tree Lighting. It was pretty magical. Hundreds of families, a childrens' choir, all gathered in town square - even people pushing overloaded carts with every flashing wand toy on the planet yelling "Get your flashers hea-yah! Souvenir flashers hea-yah!" Santa circled the town square on a fire truck, and then every tree lit up.

December 1st - time to hang the Advent Calendar. Made by my mom, with small personalized felt ornaments to hang. Including individual stockings with our names on them. It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions from my childhood, and I'm so lucky that my mom made a calendar for my family, so I can pass on the tradition to my girls.

And, because it was festive and cold, we needed hot chocolate - and we made it, from scratch.

The weekend was a whirlwind of activity. I drove down and back from New Jersey in 24 hours; I had a baby shower for my best friend, and Pete had a final paper to write, so I took the girls and did the drive solo. I'd love to share some shots, but the main photography event was for my parents' Christmas card, so you'll just have to wait... then it was back home for 2 photo shoots on Sunday. Chloe and Mutzy made chocolate covered pretzels while we were there. Addy is a huge fan.

We got our tree this week. And after accusing Pete of not being in the Christmas Spirit, he decided to show just how much spirit he has... and insisted on the biggest tree we could find. And it almost fits in the house.

It took two days to get it decorated, thanks to being one strand of lights short to finish dressing the mammoth. But that meant we got to spread out the smiles of looking at ornaments made many Christmases ago, the "Baby's First"s spreading from last year to the 1980s. 

And December special... Pete has been grabbing the camera more and more. And I'm learning to just shrug and smile, because we have full albums of me rolling my eyes and trying to dodge the picture. So I promised him I would post one.

Yep. Short hair. And I like it.

Now it's back to finalizing Christmas shopping, and trying not to keep adding things to my wish list!