Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...

....and then there's decorating.  It's another part of our annual traditions during Christmas Tree Weekend (aka known as "the weekend after Thanksgiving".  Black Friday is a bit irritated that we show more attention to our tree than retailers' economic well being.)

The official mounting of the star

The star in all its glory

Our family with the fully decorated Christmas tree

We're ready to start the Christmas season!

Christmas tree hunt

It is our annual family tradition to cut down our own tree.  We all love it.  It always happens on the weekend following Thanksgiving.

We load up in the van and visit Haring Tree Farm--a great place to find a tree.  We like Douglas Firs and can always find a good one there. 

I'm a big fan of Charlie Brown trees--not too many branches. It's better for hanging ornaments. This year's tree wasn't quite as sparce as I'd have like it to have been, but the masses ruled on this one.

Once the tree is found, Jeff cuts it down, it's shaken and bagged.  We load it onto the van and take it home for it's decorating later in the weekend.

Snug as a bug

My three oldest love sleeping together. It's a sad night for them when we don't let it happen.  They're very excited when Henry will be able to join them--won't that be cozy?

19 months old

These days I'm having trouble getting my 19 month old to smile for any pictures. Our laughing, comedic boy likes to play serious any time a camera is pointed his direction. Of course, as he runs to see the result on the back of the camera, he's giggling all the way.

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family from afar....

These past two weekends, we've had the joy of seeing many of Jeff's family from California. Grandma and Grandpa Pettigrew (Jeff's mother's parents) come about once a year to visit all of us--which is amazing that they still do it at their age. It's always wonderful to see them.

This year, Jeff's Aunt Janet (Mom vB's sister) was also able to come along with Grandma and Grandpa.

On top of that, Jeff's Aunt Anneke (his dad's sister) came--without planning it--to visit all of us as well.  It was a great two weekends.

We always love getting a picture with Grandma and Grandpa Pettigrew and their 16 great grandchildren.  The love it, too.