Whenever we drive around after dark these days, I can hear two little voices from the back of the van saying excitedly, “Look mommy! It’s Christmas decorations! It’s a Christmas tree! I see Christmas lights!” Ruthie keeps saying we need a Christmas tree of our own, and I couldn’t help but agree. So today we took all the girls to Home Depot to grab a tree. It couldn’t have been a nastier day (cold and rainy, typical Georgia winter), but we were determined.
There was a giant wooden Elsa, Olaf and Sven from the movie “Frozen” in the store, so Ruthie and Rosie approved of the place. My mom got them Elsa and Anna costumes, and of late that is all they have been wearing. Ruth is Elsa and Rose is Anna. I am the big snow monster, apparently. Thanks, girls. I have been liking the new development, though, because Elsa and Anna get along a lot better than Ruthie and Rosie. They are constantly rescuing each other and hugging. I have a video of it on my Facebook page, but I neglected to take a picture of them. My bad.
We found a tree that Daddy deemed acceptable and had the friendly employees secure it to our car roof. We pulled into our driveway and started to blithely drive into our garage when I suddenly remembered the tree on top of our car and yelled, “tree!” Scott slammed on the brakes just in time. That would have been a dismal start to our holiday season. A smooshed tree and a broken garage door. Crisis averted.
We put the girls down for their nap and have started putting the tree up and decorating while they are sleeping. (Well, technically Scott and I are watching football and blogging, respectively, but I plan on decorating forthwith.) I can’t wait for the girls to see it! I am going to video their reactions and put them on Instagram or Facebook. I’m also going to leave off on hanging the ornaments because I know they would love to help with that.
I love the Advent season! I still need to get out my Advent wreath and crèche. Oh come, oh come Emmanuel! Have you decorated yet, or do you usually wait until closer to Christmas? We really haven’t even received very many Christmas cards yet and our neighborhood is pretty sparsely decorated. I feel like Thanksgiving was so close to Christmas this year, it has taken people by surprise.
Wren’s next heart appointment is coming up in a little more than a week. Trying to stay calm about that. I will keep you apprised of the situation.
Tales from the Mommy Trenches 
Christmas decorations are pretty moderate around here. Some have a conifer in their front lawn in which they hang christmas lights during the holiday season. Some put light decorations in their windows. And / or straw / paper stars or other Christmasy decorations… You can even spot the occasional lit-up deer or Santa decoration, but not as overboarding as you can find it in the U.S. – I don’t even know if that’s common at all, I only saw some pictures and movies and don’t know how representative they are.
Usually we buy the tree on the Saturday of the 4th advent weekend and then decorate it that Sunday afternoon. That way it’ll still look fresh and green during the holidays. (I suck at watering potted plants!)
In some families it’s tradition to decorate the tree on Christmas Eve, but we never did that because usually that day is already packed. The Christmas festivities in Germany start on the afternoon / evening of December 24th, so the mornings are usually busy with getting a whole lot of stuff done – buying last-minute gifts, cleaning the house, prepare dinner…. and we usually go to the kids’ mass / service in the afternoon. Once that is over it’s time for dinner and then presents and I have no clue where to fit decorating the tree in all that chaos 😀
When I was a kid we kept the tree until February 2nd (candlemas) but usually by then the tree just consisted of a bare tree with no needles left, so I think even my mom gave up that tradition recently… I don’t know if anyone still follows it. Most families take the decorations down on January 6th or the weekend after that. In the village we live in, the parish youth groups collect the trees on the Saturday after January 6th for a small fee and put them all on a huge pile. In the evening there’s a huge bonfire. The only fire the local firefighters are allowed to start themselves 😉
Of course we have an advent wreath!
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What wonderful traditions! And yes, Christmas decorations around here get pretty crazy. We have a few giant blow up Christmas snow globes in people’s front yards. I even saw a sign where you can hire a company to decorate your yard with Christmas lights for you! We don’t seem to have an electric outlet on the front of our house, so I guess we’ll just have to settle for a wreath on our front door.
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Snow globes? Interesting… 😀 I’d love to see that overboarding decoration in real life. Just once.
Since I live in an area of Germany where the U.S. military was stationed (and in some cities still is), you can spot any americans living here pretty easily 😉
I like the “less is more” motto and prefer having only a few, but tasteful decorations around. This year though, ours are pretty artful. I gave each kid a roll of foil paper and glued the results on our living room windows 😀 The neighbors must think we are crazy 😀 (I think that I’ll put the pics I took of it in our blog advent calendar one day)
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I’d love to see that! The girls would love to have a fun holiday craft. And I have to email you a pic of that snow globe in our neighborhood. It is pretty hilarious.
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Oh yes, pretty please send me that pic. Out load it up on instagram, since I’m secretly stalking you (I need to get an account. Soon. But unfortunately my cellphone is crap and I seem to be way to stupid to find out how to get an account for PC users…)
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Done and done!
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Lovely post again, love the shots of wren…we also took out the tree this weekend, no buying trees here, plastic versions, but boeta had fun too.
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I would get a plastic one, but I am addicted to this intoxicating tree aroma! Love seeing pics of that beautiful boy!
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I can believe that, just like mussle memory, Christmas is all about sights, smells, traditions, emotions and so on. Recreating that every year is surely one of the fun parts.
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Yes!!!
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Wait. Which post went viral? I want to read it, if I haven’t already!
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HuffPo asked me for this one, for reasons that are still a mystery to me (not really their usual subject matter, even from mommy bloggers). http://sylcell.com/2014/05/30/to-the-lady-ashamed-of-being-pregnant-with-her-fourth/
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Oh yeah! That was the article that I very first read of yours because it was shared on Facebook. That was a great one.
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Well, thank you!
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I laughed out loud at your being the snow monster. Too funny!! Glad you saved the tree!
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Definite downgrade from when my sisters and I were playing imaginary games
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Wren is so cute sitting on the stairs 😀
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She thinks she is so big;)
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How darling your children are! Love how they get along better when they act out characters…always a bonus! I heard my ten year-old playing a character upstairs from her favorite book. It tells about a really messy girl… “I can not stand girls that are too neat and clean…I am completely allergic to them!” I wonder if she really thinks that 😀 I have started to decorate a bit here and there but we do not have a tree yet. According to Finnish tradition the tree is brought into the house on Christmas Eve and is brought out after epiphany. We’ll see, we may bring it in earlier!
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My family used to wait until Christmas Eve. We loved it because it made Christmas Eve that much more special!
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It is so true that Thanksgiving was late this year. I was ready to start decorating the day after Thanksgiving. I love the feeling of Christmas and enjoy having it up all month. Love these pictures! Good luck with the heart appointment for Wren coming up 🙂
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Thank you! Me too. I have been nagging my poor husband about getting a tree since Black Friday!
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Glad to “hear” from you! I love seeing pictures of your girls and hearing what is going on in your life. Keep us updated on Wren’s heart appointment. I’ll be praying all goes well. 🙂
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Thank you! Yeah, I was having a total blog block until now. It is always tough to balance “must blog something, it has been too long!” and “must only blog when I have something fantastic to say!”
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Oh I hear ya!! I can only imagine the pressure (whether real or imaginary) to post something fantastic must be a lot harder after having a post go viral. 🙂
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Oh, I had three weeks after that blog post where I couldn’t post anything out of sheer terror. How could I follow that up?! How could I post anything again?! That would never happen again and it happened within my first few posts! Lol, it was hard to get over it and remember that I started this blog to chronicle our lives for posterity:)
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Even though I haven’t had a blog post go viral, not do I anticipate it happening, I still sometimes find myself doing the “stats check” and wondering, since only a few people are reading, does what I have to say really matter? It is a challenge. 🙂
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Well, if I can do it, anyone can;). You never know, I am still in shock about it. But I totally know how you feel. When my stats went from almost a million views in a day, to tens of thousands, to thousands, right down to a hundred or so, I felt like an utter failure. But I just had to shake it off and trust that God has a plan that is better than mine. And for now, I really enjoy doing it. We are not in this life for human approval anyway. But I do hope that I can help encourage and support fellow mamas along the way. I also love this network of mommy bloggers that I have discovered. You all are a group of extraordinary and inspiring women!
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