Baby It's Cold Outside

 What can I say? I love Sammy Davis Jr. and I think this is my favorite Christmas song!

 The weather has gotten colder and so we decided it was time to pull out the tree and decorate! I am so glad that we did not start decorating before Thanksgiving. The excitement builds and is much for fun with little ones when the decorations come out closer to Christmas.

 We are bubble light fanatics in this house and have a tree that is wrapped with large colored lights and bubble lights. Because the lights get mighty warm, though, we decided to stay with a cool, white light tree to keep little fingers safe.

 We always love home made decorations and the salt dough ones we made last week turned out beautiful. I think the little ones did a fantastic job painting them.

 I tend to just pile all of the ornaments into one big box. The kids spend hours sifting through them, looking for ones they made and ones that they hold dear. This is honestly my favorite part of decorating, to see how excited the girls get and to experience their cherished Christmas memories through their eyes.

 I even have a few decorations that I adore the most. One cannot live here near Chattanooga without Rock City commemorated on the property in some fashion.

 Fletcher thinks the tree is a blast! With toddlers we have found it is best to keep precious and breakables up high. We do keep plastic balls (no hooks) low and a few expendable ornaments low for the little ones to pull off and place back on the tree. I do not see any reason to constantly say "no" to a young child who is naturally drawn to the beauty and glimmer of the tree. Who wants to hear "no" all day? It's better to give them a chance to "help" by placing appropriate ornaments low.

 I finished quilting my new tree skirt just in time and love that I used all scraps from my fabric stash! I now have something handmade that I can pass down one day. The bright colors will look fabulous with the bubble light tree too.

 The dogs enjoy the lights too. It's amazing how a simple, decorated tree can draw every one and every thing together!

 I did place some glass ball ornaments on a cake plate on the table for a display. They are cool and Zeb thinks that it's really cool that he can see himself in them. That is absolutely one of the most beautiful things about having kids too. They can find treasure and pleasure in the most simple things that we, as adults, don't give a second thought to. Have you ever stared into a glass ornament with amazement like that?

 This week we have decorated, made shopping lists and talked about all the preparations we will be making for the up coming weeks of celebration. We are blessed, we are happy, and we are thankful to be a large family.
We also decided to share  our fortunes and sponsor another child. Instead of sponsoring through Compassion, however, we chose a child through Amazima. If you haven't read Katie's book yet, then I highly suggest you do. It's amazing how little it costs to help support a child in Uganda. It was a gift to our family this year. If you are looking for a gift for someone consider a child sponsorship. So anyway, we are now blessed with another family member, Rebecca in Uganda. Life is so good to us.

This weekend we will be finishing up a few projects and getting packages ready to ship out to family members and friends. We will do more school next week and then take a break for Christmas. I will have another craft idea Monday...yeah I know I keep saying that:-)  I was busy this week knitting scarves for some of my lady friends with whom I eat out each month.

On a completely different subject, I have to share a photo of two of the dogs. If you have a weimeranar, then you know their personalities. They are really serious and yet goofy dogs at the same time. They also sit funny. An example is this picture we took of Arwen sitting on Zelda. What was that crazy dog thinking?

Have a super duper weekend!!!!

I am going to close with a phone dump! See you Monday!