it's beginning to look a little like christmas...

we managed to get our christmas tree up and decorated at the beginning of december. :) we were pretty proud of ourselves! we went to lowe's and found a great tree at a great price within 15 minutes! (thanks, eric & kristi, for doing the comparison shopping for us.) :) when we brought the tree inside, it was EXACTLY the height of our living room ceiling...so brian trimmed a little bit off, and we were in business. we have a much better tree stand this year, so it took no time at all to get the tree situated. (unlike last year, when brian had to trim several knobs off the trunk so that we could SHOVE the tree into the stand!) we listened to christmas music and hung the lights and ornaments last weekend. it is quite a pretty tree! the tree topper we just bought is a neat scrolly star. brian put one light in the bottom of it, and when the lights are blinking, you can see all kinds of scrolly shadows on the ceiling! i'm pretty entertained by it. :) ethan loves to be underneath the tree and look at all the lights. he also loved the chance to play with a few ornaments before we hung them on the tree... his last opportunity to do that for a few years!! (i can hear us next year... "ethan, do not touch. ethan, do not touch....") anyway, he was pretty impressed with the new addition to our living room. i can't wait until he can understand the significance of Christmas and Who we are celebrating. we are really looking forward to establishing many traditions that treasure God. we've been reading an absolutely fantastic book, treasuring God in our traditions, by noel piper. i'd highly recommend it! enjoy these pictures of ethan's first christmas experience...

this is the only kind of snowflake ethan will see this winter...



nana bought us a family of jingle bell snowman ornaments with our names on them. ethan loved hearing the bells jingle!



he stared contemplatively at the lights blinking in the tree... check out his hair- this is the worst i've ever seen it! the true definition of BEDHEAD!



here's the book i mentioned... i mean it--it's a good one!