The last few days...

We had such a fun weekend. On Friday night Steven and I went and picked out our tree and a tree for the Javier's. We have learned that it is so much cheaper to go to Home Depot the first time! We always search around, going to a few of the set-up stands along the side of the road, but I think we are pretty settled on going to Home Depot each year.

Saturday morning we got up fairly early, I made breakfast for Steve and my parents and I to take to the Javiers. So, we went down to their house and had a surprise breakfast and put up decorations and their Christmas tree. It was so much fun to have everyone around and everyone really seemed to have a good time together.

After the Javier festivites we came home and set up our tree. Now, before viewing the picture, you have to understand a few things. We brought our tree home the previous night and had planned on decorating and all that the night before, but when we thought about our tree height before we left we didn't plan on the fact that your tree stand adds extra height. So, even before we could get our tree standing upright we had to hack off about a foot of the tree with a kitchen knife...cool I know. Then, after trying to get our tree to stand for about and hour Steven and I both gave up. It leaned in the corner all night. Our only thought was that maybe we would have to wire it to the wall. But, after we got done at the Javier's I asked Dad to go and help our tree, which he did in a matter of seconds by turning the tree and leaning the heaviest part into the corner. SO....when you see this decorated tree...realize that it was a lot of work!

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is to have smaller tree in our room. The tradition started last year in our teeny Utah apartment when Steven wanted to sleep on our living room floor every night so he could be close to the tree. To compromise and also to get a good nights sleep I suggested a smaller tree in our room. So, this is Steven decorating the special upstairs tree.

Oh wait! That is Steven distracted by Muppet Christmas Carol...here is the real decorating.

We had so much fun with our trees. The weekend was topped off with Tim's NIC Concert Choir performing that night. We went to the concert and had so much fun. The Wind Symphony played the Mannheim Steamroller's version of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and it was so fun! At one point they played Sleigh Ride, and Mason turned to Grandma and said, " I know that one! It's from Elf!!

Tori pretty much dealt with the weekend the way that I like to.

Yesterday Steven and I were invited to look through his parents decorations from past years and see if there was anything that we would like to have at our house. Steven found a few things that he remembered from when he was little, and it was fun to see him relive those memories with his Mom. It was very educational to hear of the Christmas traditions (there was some mention of Steven and Tyler riding the stuffed sheep from the manger scene?), and fun to be with family as usual.

Well, I think this is it for now, we are having a wonderful Christmas season and we hope the same is true for everyone else as well...

The Daines