Christmas Tree Decorating 2017

Last year we started the tradition of allowing (well-behaved) children to sleep under the Christmas tree every night leading up to Christmas. I read Christmas stories and sit by the fire (if it's "cold" enough!) and the kids look up at the tree. It really is magical! So this year when the calendar hit 12/1 I was anxious to set aside time to get the tree set up. And those who know me know that I am not a patient person. Not surprisingly on 12/2 our tree was up and decorated!

But we can't just decorate a tree. That would be too simple. No I've unintentionally complicated this process. Six years ago I saw the most adorable stop-motion video of a family setting up their tree together. Of course that means five years ago we started making our very own family stop-motion Christmas decorating videos. And we've been doing it ever since. (For those who are interested here are 2014 and 2016 as well. We took all the pictures in 2015 but Joe never got around to making the video. Darn intern year. Someday. Maybe. ;)

So without further ado I present 2017: the year you can see the top of the tree:) We really are getting the hang of this. Our only mishap during the entire process what Hannah falling of the chair at one point because Joe mentioned putting the star on top of the tree. She was so excited to get to the star she tripped - even though it wasn't her year to put on the star! It was supposed to be Levi's year to put the star on top but he declined. I'll leave the story there. A real cliffhanger. ;)

This is probably where I should add the detail that Levi is yet to fall asleep under the tree. The three oldest have made it all night both nights so far. But Levi just can't. He listens to the stories I read and he tries. But we've had to put him in his crib to sleep. I was hoping he could join the big kid ranks this year. We will keep trying. But I'm thinking next year will work better.