O Christmas Tree

 

I was trying to get a photo of the girls wearing this Santa hat and reindeer antlers in front of the Christmas tree.  But Rose was not having it.  The above photo was the best I got.  But most of them honestly looked more like the one below.  Rose was not at all happy that I was making her wear the Santa hat.

 

 

Clara had such an early morning the other day.  She woke up at 4:30 or something crazy like that and would not go back to sleep.  I don't have any idea what was going on.  Finally I took her out front and turned the Christmas tree on and just started telling her stories.  Then I had the brilliant idea to recreate a scene from the Nutcracker where Clara goes to sleep under the Christmas tree.  She jumped at the idea and within 2 minutes had crashed beneath the tree and I was finally able to transfer her back to her bed.  But not after taking photos of her. 

 

We have all really enjoyed our tree this year.  It was maybe the most beautiful one we have ever had - maybe because we have taller ceilings in our new house and could have a taller tree.  The girls have been very good about leaving the decorations and lights on too, which was nice.  One night at dinner I turned all the lights off except for the tree lights and some candles, which we ate our dinner by.  Then we just listened to Christmas music and played under the tree for the rest of the evening until bedtime.  The girls loved it and I had fun taking way too many photos of the magic.

I finally let Rose play with one of the ornaments just to keep her attention a little focused because in the low lighting I needed her to hold still a little more so not all of my photos were blurry. 

Poor baby also has a bit of a cold (Clara and I have both caught it since) so her nose has been running like crazy.  But I can't help but love this picture of her sticking her little tongue out because she does this so often.

Last year my Aunt Renita took note of my admiration of her Christmas countdown which is a darling rocking horse/Santa's workshop and she hunted one down for me.  Clara has been enjoying opening the boxes and finding a new ornament (and sometimes a special treat) each day this month.