christmas 09

we had a great christmas this year.

here is a rundown of the favorite gifts

every three year old needs a giant candybar. even though i told "santa" she didn't need one, it magically appeared in her stocking. i guess "santa" knows best
the girls were dying, crying and sighing for zhu zhu pets. i looked for months. my mom and her friends looked for months. finally i found some three days before christmas. the best part; these things are highly, highly breakable.

so while the joy on their faces made it worth while at the time. i'd like to have a serious conversation with the makers of these fine toys.

brendan desperately wanted a guitar. he starts lessons with mike the guitar guru this week. he is so excited!!

a tree grows in the forest.....

beautiful and majestic it grows for centuries. then the hahl's come and chop it down ending it's life for the noble cause of a christmas tree.

we love going into the forest to find and cut down our own christmas tree. it's a pretty new tradition for us, but the kids love it! when you are in the forest, it's really hard to tell how the tree is going to look when it's isolated away from the others. the other trick is figuring out how monstrous it's going to be in your living room! our's ended up being a lot wider at the bottom than i thought it was going to be (that's after cutting at least 5 feet off) and getting it into the house was pretty entertaining. thankfully the elders showed up at just the right time and helped larry pull it through the door and lift it up.

i was hoping that we wouldn't have to do the platform again this year but after lily took about half the ornaments off a friend of ours tree we figured it would be a pretty good idea. maybe next year we can put it on the floor like normal people. but until then, the platform actually has some positive attributes. first, the space underneath provides an excellent hiding spot for those secret christmas items. second, it makes the tree easier to water. thirdly, we don't have to worry about little fingers pulling the tree over on themselves. and i think i actually kind of like how it keeps the tree out of the way a little bit.