It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas- June.

Aunt Jenni has been calling mama and talking about the Christmas music they are already playing on the radio in Indiana. Add on all the Christmas commercials on the TV and the fact that we've already got most of our Christmas shopping done (yeah!), and you knew it was just a matter of days before mama succumbed to the pressure and got out the Christmas stuff.

She's always got a good excuse about us being gone for so long over Christmas and how if we waited until all our guests were gone, we'd only be able to enjoy our tree for 2 weeks. I think the real reason might be that she's ready to clean all of the new ornaments she's been hoarding all year out of her dresser drawer.

She and papa got all the boxes out of the attic (hooray again for a walk-in attic) and mama got to work setting up the tree. It's surprising how fast everything goes up when you actually have room to unpack it. It was almost enjoyable save for Henry hounding mama about putting up the tree lights NOW! I played with my June doll and tried to get this hat ornament to stay on her head.

She got the tree up before lunch and mama put the lights on during our nap. So when we woke up, it was finally time to start hanging ornaments. Henry employed the "how many can I fit on one branch method."

Papa had to go to work (boo for Sunday faculty meetings- during the Bengals game, no less), so mama had to contend with two very excited kids and literally boxes and boxes of ornaments being torn open. We glad to announce that no ornaments were irreparably damaged during the melee. But everyone is getting super glue in their stocking to replace the stock we went through yesterday. We found our stegosaurus' tail under the couch last night.



If you have to decorate a tree with only kids around, Henry is the best kid to have. He got excited about EVERY ornament.


He was a little nervous that the Grinch might come steal our tree. Papa thinks it's funny that he doesn't care much about a jovial, benevolent man who brings presents to good girls and boys, but instead likes the mean green guy who will take your presents unless you understand the real spirit of Christmas. Mama thinks maybe it is because it is more in line with the rule of this house anyway.

After we finished the big tree in the toy room, we moved on to the little tree in the office. Mama had put yellow lights on it, but Henry found left over red lights and insisted that we use all the lights. So now we have a tribute to the Kansas City Chiefs in our office. (Way to go beating the Steelers!) Coincidentally, mama had left over Ikea ornaments to decorate the tree that are red and gold, so it works. Henry insisted that the trees were light enough and turned off all the lights in the house. I had a good time running around the house in the dark.

While we decorated, mama was trying to keep up with the Bengals game, so we could do whatever we wanted. We had a Christmas sing-a-long on the guitar.

And I kept myself happy climbing over two chairs.

And sliding down the side. It kept me busy for at least 2 failed red-zone attempts by the Bengals.

When we were done, mama insisted on trying to get a picture of us in front of the tree. (I'm wearing a vintage dress from the mama collection.)

An low and behold, we actually got a good picture! For the first time in her life, I sat still and even said "Cheese" and smiled nicely for a picture! Maybe it's because I'm starting to understand that a good picture usually means a piece of candy from the Halloween stash. Or more likely, I'm afraid if I don't sit still, the Grinch might come and take our tree.