Decorating the Tree

Today I put up our Christmas tree, and as I was getting all the branches separated and set up, I thought that I'd rather be sweeping pine needles from a real tree. But, once it was done, I decided it wasn't so terrible, just time-consuming. The tree looks pretty good, though, if I do say so myself.

The boys were super excited to get the ornaments put on the tree. I could barely get them all unwrapped quickly enough.

Unfortunately, Mike's hand was in front of the flash when he took these pictures, so there's a bit of a shadow.

Of course, the one picture without much of a shadow is this cheesy one of me. Mike wanted me to stick my belly out. At this point I'm just 3 days from my due date. Now that I've cleaned my house and gotten the Christmas decorations up, I'm fine with going into labor whenever. Oh, that and I wanted to be sure to get to my hair appointment today, so now I'm good to go!

The boys seemed to focus on one section of the tree for their ornaments. I'd say about 80% of the ornaments went in that one section, no higher than Zach's head.

I later moved some of the ornaments and spread them out a little while still trying to keep the boys' favorites down around their level. And after telling Zach about 3 times that he couldn't put the glass ball ornaments on because I was worried he'd drop them and break them, of course I knocked about 4 off the table and they shattered all over the floor. I'll blame the clumsiness on being pregnant- an excuse I can only use for a few more days.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post about our debate over a tree with colored lights vs. just white lights, and ultimately the authentic look of the tree determined which kind of lights we got (because it's a pre-lit tree), and that meant we got all white. I do like colored lights, but I think the tree still looks pretty with just the white lights on it. So here is the final tree in all its glory. It really looks a lot prettier in person- I haven't figured out how to take a good picture in the dark, so the first picture is with the flash (and maybe the lights on), and the second picture is with no flash and no lights on in the house. Really doesn't do the tree justice, though

Now for something totally unrelated. I feel like a kid again, what with all the pictures I'm taking of my dogs lately. As a child, about 20 of the 24 pictures on a roll of film taken from my camera would be of my dogs, Ginger and Molly. I just couldn't resist their cuteness. Tonight Foudy joined Drew and me for bedtime reading, and she couldn't resist some snuggling. She laid right on Drew's legs, and I couldn't believe he let her without getting all claustrophobic or anything. It was pretty darn sweet.