It's beginning to look a (little) like Christmas!

One tradition we have in the Valentine home is to bust out the Christmas decor ASAP after Thanksgiving celebrations & cooking marathons have ceased.  This year, it fell on Sunday.  We put the girls down for their naps after we arrived home from church & got to work.  We set up the tree, the garland on the bookshelves & set out a a few things but saved the fun part for the family to enjoy. For the 2 weeks leading up to our decorating extravaganza, Charlotte has been super excited about Christmas trees.  She was adorable when she woke up from her nap & came out to a Christmas tree in her very own living room!

Our evening started with jamming to our new Ultimate Motown Christmas CD while making some sugar cookie dough. Charlotte was the best dancer & also the best helper with her measuring expertise, pouring each ingredient into the bowl & even helped roll it out! We were covered in flour along with most of the kitchen....as it should be for a fun evening of cookie making!

We had all the ornaments laid out to hang once our "snackies" which are always sausage balls & pigs in a blanket, were ready.  I love to hang my ornaments in order, I start with my Baby's first Christmas ornament & move on through the years.  So, I had them all laid out with the intention to be organized & then I just laughed as Charlotte ran over and started picking them up 4 in each hand & running all over the living room.  So, this year was the first of MANY years that with the assistance of little hands, they will be hung in random order & in random places....sometimes this means 3 ornaments on one wimpy branch : ) I am not ashamed to admit that I did a little adjusting after someone went to bed.

Char got the hang of it really fast & did a great job getting the ornaments on the tree.  She very much enjoyed getting to help Daddy put the star on!

After the ornaments were hung, we baked 3 cChristmas tree cookies & had a decorating contest ; ) YUMMY! Here are our masterpieces....

Fancy huh? Not really, just delicious, no time (or energy) for fancy!

This girl is such a silly goose....

Oh yes, I did fail to mention that little Eloise was snoozing during most of the party but woke up for the milk portion of the milk & cookies ; ) She was excited to see something new in the living room.  Thankfully she is not mobile yet so our decorations are safe!

We finished the evening with watching a video of our trip to Crested Butte last winter. Char named every single family member a million time...guess it was a good assessment of her recognition skills, especially with the ski hats & goggles ; )

It was a wonderful evening to kick off the Christmas season in our home.  We are looking forward to some memorable moments this holiday season as we celebrate with two little ones.