It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

The first week of December has come and gone. I love the Christmas season and only wish that it would last longer. It seems to go by so fast and sometimes all that I want to do and get done gets pushed off until the next year. December started with a little snow for us. No, it didn't stick to the ground and the kids still had to go to school, but you would have thought we had a foot of snow with how excited the kids were.
The Christmas tree is always a fun event for our family. The kids love to pull out their own specific ornaments and reminesce about why they have that ornament or tell stories of what their ornament means to them. The kids hang their own ornaments on the tree in very "special" spots. They are very particular about where they hang their ornaments. If I try to rearrange their ornaments, they know immediately that I have moved them. Following and old German tradition, each year I hide a pickle in the tree. I have to brag a little....I hid the pickle SO good this year...the tree has been up and decorated for days now, and they still haven't found the pickle. I guess it is about time to give them a hint. This year I decorated two trees, and decided to do the tops a little different. I think they turned out pretty good....I'm already excited to decorate next year and change it up a little. This is tree #1 - this picture is a little dark, but instead of putting a star at the top of the tree, I put lots of "stuff" sticking out....I'll have to get a better picture, but I was happy with the way it turned out. Tree #2 was so fun to decorate. This is more a red and white tree. My kids laugh at me, but I love to sit in the family room at night with just the Christmas lights on. Since my big tree is in the dining room and I can't see the lights from the family room, I decided to put a small tree in the family room this year. This tree is perfect. It's small and skinny, so it isn't in the way! I love it! It adds so much and at night I love sitting being surrounded by lights, cuddled up in my blanket, listening to Christmas music, and drinking my hot chocolate!
This year we have an addition to our family! ZIPPY!!! Actually Zippy Herman!Zippy joined our family this year all the way from the North Pole. Zippy is here to watch the kids during the day, then at night he travels back to the North Pole to report to Santa if the children have behaved. When he comes back he picks a new spot to sit in. The kids love it! Every morning begins with a search for Zippy. So far he has been in the kitchen, family room, and bathroom. The deal is that Zippy can't talk, but you can talk to him. You also can't touch him because that would rub off his magic. The other day, Zippy was sitting on the railing of the stairs. Jordan came down the stairs and accidentally bumped him off. Cody began to panic! He couldn't believe Jordan touched him...even worse, he couldn't believe I touched him to pick him up! Cody was certain Zippy wouldn't be coming back from the North Pole! I assured him that if we wrote a note to Santa asking for more magic, he would make it back. SO - we made Jordan write a note to Santa that night! You can imagine Jordan's face when I told her she had to write a letter to Santa! :) But she did it, and Cody was happy! Zippy is so fun and has brought many laughs to our family over the past couple of days!