Putting up the Tree

Bryon had been playing Christmas music for weeks, but the day after Thanksgiving was the official start of his favorite season. The kids were so excited to get everything up. They helped clean the house and rearrange things so that we could put it all out.
We had a problem with lights on the tree and so we had to pause to fix it. The kids all found things to occupy themselves with with they impatiently waited. Ethen and Rebekah decorated each other as the Christmas tree and Sam got a hold of the bulbs. He thought they were really shinny balls and starting throwing them. He broke a whole bunch before we put the lid back on the box. The older kid decided that it would need to be Sam's turn this year to put on the star.


I think that Bryon enjoyed it more than anyone else. He sure seems to be having a great time hanging ornaments.
All of these activities took place in the afternoon. I was having WAY too much fun shopping like crazy with my mom. We were awesome this year and got everything we went for.
We woke up at 2, left the house at 2:30 and were at Walmart and Kohls by 3. Kohls line wasn't too bad, but my mom stood outside for 45 minutes in the cold just to get me towels and pillows. Then it took her 90 minutes to go through the check out line.
Walmart was surprisingly crowded at 3am. I saw a ton of people I knew from work and realized that I need to quit telling people my secrets. I was able to get everything into my cart and ready to check out by 5:20, but my mom wasn't done yet so I explored the not crowded sections of the store.
Emily texted me at 5:30 and asked if I was awake. I had been up so long I was ready for a nap. Of course I wasn't as tired as she was. She had already been to 2 malls, Kohls and Babies R Us by then.
Crazy I know, but it seriously is my favorite day of the year.
Thanks mom for going with me even though you didn't by anything for yourself. It was a blast.