Decorating Christmas

I was supposed to post this some days ago, but for a few reasons I didn't. One, Christmas is hard for me without Frank. Two, I had better pictures to post. These didn't come out great, poor lighting and mama not feeling like taking pictures. This one is just our (leaning) tree. It does lean. We tried to fix this but gave up when it at least quit falling over on the floor completely, which was frustrating.


The kids did most of the work, I bought the tree and Tad brought it in and helped me set it up, or I helped him. What happened??? How did he get so old and big that I am now the helper! The kids also brought up the decorations, such as they are. We spent 9 years buying decorations that were lost in the tornado, it will take us a few years of a few here and there to make our collection us again.

Yes, that's a flat rate priority mail box that our decorations are in... Most of them put away in a tangled mess which Nathalie had to unwind and fix.

This is a decoration that our best friends little one made for us last year, she was 3 and we treasure her little clay piece with shiny bits. Its one of Nathalie's favorites.

You see the knife sticking out of Tad's pocket? That knife goes almost everywhere with him. He loves it and we all get a lot of use out of it, though I think we only needed it one time during decorating. (an issue with some yarn... no need to explain here!) His Uncle John gave him this knife the last time Frank deployed and he hasn't been without it often since. It was Uncle John's, when he was a boy growing up in Sweden.

Our tinsel is a bit wonky right? I left it all up to them though.

Once again the knife... Interestingly, our white under tree fabric was an old upholstery cover left here by the previous owner, it does a great job! And no, to my family who my ask, Nathalie's outfit wasn't my choice! The pj pants are warm and wooly and the tunic is simply soft from wearing it the 3rd winter.

Without the flash and sorta sideways, kinda neat. Yes we checked the lights before we strung them, I learned this the hard way.

Our St Nick, the kids miss the old one. The old one was holding a sledge hammer and some other tool. We used to have tool ornaments, and a little engine ornament...

So that was it, we got this done a few days after thanksgiving and now there are presents under it. The pile has grown day by day as presents came in the mail from grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends. The kids are looking forward to being on Skype with Frank Christmas morning and say they wont start without him... Here's praying it works!