O Christmas Tree

Rhett, the girls, and I had a fantastic holiday season.  Cate had a break from preschool, and Rhett had a bunch of time off of work, so we had a ton of family togetherness.  It was all good, I promise!  Here is a recap of some of our adventures...

We kicked off Christmas time by (what else?) buying our tree!  Cate and Rhett had a fun time decorating it...and themselves.

Cate is finding just the right spot for our ornaments.  Not pictured: Charlotte pulling most of the ones within her reach down immediately.  

Two of Santa's reindeer.

Those two crazy kids also set off for our town's little holiday event, where they have a show, train cars, and, best of all, the opportunity to roast marshmallows.  Cate was in hog heaven.

Santa sighting + marshmallows = a good night for Cate.

Later in December, we also had lunch with Santa.  For the girls, it was mainly a chance to eat their weight in potato chips, which I'm fairly sure they did.  Santa did not disappoint, Cate was excited to see him although, I was a little nervous and thought the jig was up when he arrived.  I had just answered "Yes" to Cate after she asked me if Santa was coming on his sleigh when "Santa" arrived in the parking lot in his beat up old Grand Cherokee.  Rhett and I were able to divert Cate's eyes--whew!

"That's enough, no more chips!" said none of my children.

By Christmas Eve, Rhett was dying for some Rotel dip, so Rotel dip he did make.  

He's a professional Rotel dip maker, ladies and gents.

Once we felt nauseous from all that Velveeta cheese, it was time for Christmas Eve services at church.  Cate was excited!

And, later that night, we were excited for the next morning so we could show the girls what Santa brought them...

Bike for Cate, scooter for Charlotte.  Santa was good to the girls!

Our Christmas tree, in its heyday.  

In the morning, Cate wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but she knew something good was going to happen.  She got up at 5:30am and bounced into our room at 6:15am letting us know we could get up now, now, NOW!  Cate and Charlotte both loved playing with their gifts.

Ride inside?  Why not kid, it's Christmas!

Charlotte was still so sleepy, but Cate was ready to roll.

Cate's new Leap Pad was a hit.

Christmas 2012 was a rousing success.

Cute Christmas dresses from Grand Dad and Meme were so comfy...we wore them all day.

A little post-Christmas snow.

The girls loved looking out the windows at our neighbors' lights.  

I have to mention one last thing--the story of our tree's demise.  A few days after Xmas, it was time to get the decorations and tree out.  I suggested to Rhett that we lay a sheet down, lay the tree down in it, and carry it out together, each holding a side.  Rhett is very good about doing the "guy chores" and heavy lifting so he said no, he would do it himself.  

After several attempts to get it out of the tree stand, he finally got it loose and in true "Family Circus" style, the girls and I got the following show.  Rhett picked up the tree, tried to steady it in his hands (which resulted in the shaking off of tons of pine needs), and moved toward the front steps/door. He had the tree going out the wrong way, with the top pointed toward the door, but decided that he'd go for it anyway.  The tree got very caught up on our baby gate which gates off the small set of stairs right before our front door.  My husband pushed on anyway, forcing more and more bits of the tree on our floor (since, again, the top of the tree was facing forward, so each and every branch was getting caught on the gate).  It was such a scene of ridiculousness, that I was dying laughing.  By the time Rhett got the tree down the stairs to the front door, he just let it go down the outside steps to our house and threw his hands up as if to say "ta da!"  I was crying tears of laughter at this point.  Needless to say, we spent a good bit of the rest of the morning removing pine needles from the floor and stairs.  

Here are the front steps, just so you have a visual.  Please imagine a tree somersaulting down.  It happened.  

Our tree, in it's final resting place.  I don't have the heart to tell it it's going to be turned into mulch in a matter of days.

O Christmas tree, I am so sorry.