It's time to decorate the Christmas tree!

Merry Christmas!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Luke 2:1-21 ESV

Magazine Christmas Trees

I saw this adorable craft in this month's Family Fun magazine.

I'm not adding any new directions to the above article... just showing you my how-to pics:

Lay the colorful side of the paper face-down   Fold the top right corner down until the top edge of the paper lines up with the left side edge.

For a shorter tree, cut the bottom rectangle off before making the next fold (i.e. where the red dashed line is above).  Fold the top right edge down to line up with the left side edge.

Fold up bottom point until you have a flat base.

One sheet down... keep repeating until you have a full tree :).  The right angle of this triangle is the inside bottom of the tree. Tape or glue the front and back folds of each sheet to the adjoining sheets.  When all "branches" were taped together, I hot-glued the top points together and then added a small ornament as a tree topper.

The finished product...

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Christmas 2011

Jason and I both had to work on Christmas this year.  Thankfully, Lucas is young enough that he doesn't know the difference.  We celebrated Christmas with our small family on Christmas Eve.  We had Lucas get his little picture Bible out (so he could understand a little better), and we read the Christmas story with him.  Later that night was Christmas with my family, and then Sunday night with Jason's family.

Jason surprised me with a digital SLR camera (I'm so excited to learn how to really use it!  ...Got a long way to go :).  He and I have both had fun playing with it this weekend.

Unwrapping his big gift... a train table!!

Wearing his conductor's hat and scarf and attempting to blow his train whistle

Hugs with Papa

Archie

Getting ready for church Christmas morning

Harmonica lessons from Uncle "No-No"

Giggles with G'ama

Testing out Uncle "No-No's" headset

Decorating for Christmas

 Last year, when we decorated for Christmas, we did it after putting Lucas down for bed.  Oh, and the bottom foot of the tree was covered with felt ornaments.  This year, Lucas helped us decorate.  He had a blast unwrapping the ornaments and "hanging them" on the tree.  Actually, he did a very nice job of piling all his ornaments on top of 2 branches.  So, while Mommy helped unwrap and hang, Daddy discretely distributed the pile.

My hugeness... We decorated a week after Thanksgiving, so I've only gotten bigger...

Our Nativity Set