feeling the spirit.

Both kids helped decorate the house for Christmas this year. They were especially helpful as we put the tree up. I couldn't get the ornaments out fast enough for the kids to grab one and find a branch to put it on. Of course, we had to do a bit of rearranging since we didn't want the tree to have decorations only on the bottom, but it was really very cute to watch them.

Decorating the tree always bring lots of memories to the foreground as most of our ornaments are reminders of places we've been or things we've done, of people who have given us ornaments, of teams and characters that we love, of things from our childhood, etc. I imagine that everyone has feelings of nostalgia as they decorate their tree each year. I often think back on what it was like to decorate the tree with my parents -- my dad putting the lights on first then letting us each put our favorite ornaments on (the ones we made in school, of course!). He'd then put the silver garland on. Fun memories. I hope that as Linc & Cass get older, they'll remember putting our family tree up. I'll surely remember this year...watching their little hands add ornaments to the tree.

In the midst of decorating, Cassie pulled some old stockings out of a box and thought they belonged on her feet. Makes sense if you think about it, I suppose.