Deck the Halls

I know it isn't original but I absolutely love the day after Thanksgiving festivities. I'm one of those crazy people that braves the "Black Friday" crowds. This year, since Walmart's sales started at 10 PM on Thursday, I got there about 9. I couldn't get a shopping cart but I got the main things I wanted for my kids and saved about 50% on the main items. To me it was worth braving the crowds. And I have to say that my experience has always been fairly positive. Most people are actually fairly polite. The employees were polite and helpful. It was so crowded that it was hard to maneuver, but people were saying "pardon me" and apologizing if they did bump into you. No one was fighting, screaming or anything else. And I was out of the store by 10:45. Not bad. No actual shopping occurred on Black Friday this year! :)



But my favorite part of the day after Thanksgiving is getting out the Christmas decorations and "decking the halls". I turned on Christmas music and pulled out all of our boxes and the girls and I had a great time decorating. We have 2 trees. The one upstairs is color coordinated and while Alfredo lets the girls decorate, he'll go back over it at the end and make sure that the decorations are spread out evenly. (Although he won't have to do much of that this year. Michelle was overseeing the decorating and kept instructing Gabby where to put her ornaments and moving them when she thought it was necessary. She has a pretty good eye for detail.)





The tree downstairs is a hodge podge of ornaments that we've been given and the kids have made. There is no real rhyme or reason to that tree and I don't let Alfredo move those decorations around... it is the kids tree. We put up the garland and the advent with scriptures about the Savior. We put lights in the front window and on Saturday, Alfredo got the lights up on the outside of the house. I just love the decorations, the music, the parties and festivities, the gifts, the stories and everything about the Christmas season. Well, okay...there is one thing I don't like...the cold weather! :) But I can't complain (yet) this year, because we had a quite comfortable Thanksgiving.





I should mention that we got a late start on decorating on Friday, so we decorated upstairs on Friday and decorated downstairs on Saturday morning. But in some ways that was even better...it spread out the joy of decorating over two days.

I love this little nativity scene. It is one of four nativities that I have. My mom gave me a beautiful one that we keep upstairs. Then my mom gave my kids one that they can play with... they love it. The pieces aren't breakable and they enjoy moving the pieces around. We have one set that is ornaments that we hang on the tree downstairs. This little one is one I bought and I like it because it is so small. It fits into this little red box with a green ribbon...it looks like a little Christmas gift. And then you open it up and it is truly the greatest gift of Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.