Christmas, part 1

A month has passed since Christmas, but I figured a few pictures are better late than never.

The real kickoff for our Christmas season is to find a Christmas tree.  It seems like we always manage to go Christmas tree hunting on the coldest night of the year, but we hit the heat wave this year.   It was almost 40 degrees.

 

Chloë found the perfect tree!  A noble fir, which is exactly what we wanted.

Back at home, she got the first decoration all ready to hang on the tree.

She tried to hang it on a branch, but it dropped to the floor and shattered.  So I helped her with other ornaments, while Elaina watched our every move.

Of course the baby wanted to touch everything.

Chloë got to hang some non-breakable ornaments without assistance.

All decorated and lit up.  A few days later, Mimi helped Elaina get a closer look.

The Sunday before Christmas, we were all dressed in our finest, and the girls in their matching green velvet Christmas dresses from Grams.

Austin snapped a few pictures with my camera. (Notice the barricade around the tree to keep the little fingers from temptation.  It worked really well.)

I'm realizing how tricky it is to get four people looking halfway decent in the same shot.  This one isn't too horrible, I guess.

We didn't know it at the time, but Elaina was getting sick.  So she was just about done taking pictures before we even started.

We drove up to Bonners Ferry right after church, and stayed the night at my parent's house.  We got to spend the next morning with my dear friend Chelsea, who was in town visiting for the week.

I got to meet her super cute (and super chubby) boy Taylor, and we spent a few hours sipping tea and catching up.  Then it was back on the road, and back to Moscow.  Being Christmas Eve, there was much to be done.