Putting up the Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree is already up. Is yours?

Everyone but me seems to think it is too soon, but let me make my case for you:
  *Since Thanksgiving is so late this year, we have less days between it and Christmas than normal
  *The bending and the hanging and the stringing of lights was already a chore for my ever-growing body
  *I LOVE Christmas and having our tree up makes our home so much more cozy, especially when it's dark out and the tree lights are on!

So there. :)

In the past, the putting up of the tree has been strictly a Gina activity. Two years ago in 2011, Sutton was able to help a bit:

Then last year when he was 2, he got a bit more excited, mostly about this airplane ornament that he stole from Rachael and Matt the previous year:

This year, he was probably as excited as me to put up the tree. We talked about it for a couple days ahead of time and decided that we'd put it up Friday night after I was done at work. Well, we pulled out the $30 pre-lit Walmart special that Adam and I had bought the second year we were married and....only a tiny section of lights still worked.

Daddy to the rescue. He started untangling, untwisting, and clipping the old lights off the tree, all while telling me how grateful I needed to be that this cheap tree has lasted us this long. I made a late run to Walmart for new lights, but by the time I got home, the old lights still hadn't come all the way off (it was a big job) and it was bedtime for the kiddo.

We told Sutton he'd have to wait until Saturday morning to decorate. Poor kid was such a trooper. He kept asking to put on the "oh-ma-ments" and we kept telling him to wait. And he did. He entertained himself while I got frustrated with the whole ordeal.

After breakfast Saturday morning, it was finally time! But first, I had to string the new lights on, as well as the tinsel and the silver beads. More waiting. Then...Ornament Time!

Sutton picked out all his favorites from our ornament box: the wooden airplane, the glittery backhoe, the KrisKraft boat, the 60s truck. Our tree has a concentration of boy-themed ornaments at Sutton height. :)

Daddy lifted him up to put the star on top, but it was a little too tricky.

Just a little help from Daddy and...

Our finished tree!! I love our non-matchy tree. We have ornaments from my childhood, Adam's childhood, an ornament with a family photo of us each year since Sutton was born, "S" ornaments from each year since Sutton was born...I just love the mix.

I'm not a big decorator. I wish I was...I love the look of perfectly decorated houses. But alas, I have neither the time nor money to put into it. So I set up my few other Christmas decorations:

And that was that. Oh, and there's a wreath on the door.

Adam is probably better at decorating than me, so after the tree was up, he had the idea to rearrange our entire living room in order to put our tree right in the middle of our front window so it could be seen from outside. So we pushed around couches and moved rugs and tables and the tree, and I must say that it looks great! I plan on doing more photos of Sutton with the tree so I will maybe grab some shots of the new setup too.