It's Finally December!

Well, it's 4 days in to December now. We are excited to be getting in to the official Christmas season... although I believe the Christmas spirit should be around all the time I do like to wait until December to put out the decorations.  We are a little behind because we need Dad's help (attic, cutting down tree, etc.) and he has been stuck working overtime lately.  The kids got started by going caroling with the children's ministry on December 1st.  They really enjoyed it!  Then, on Sunday, we enjoyed a beautiful Christmas musical put on by the children's choir at our church.  3 of my boys participated and I must say, I was very proud of them.  ALL the children did wonderful and you could really tell they worked hard to learn their songs and memorize their speaking parts. 

Yesterday we enjoyed going to a local Christmas tree farm.  It was unseasonably warm so some of us wore shorts!  It seems kind of strange to be doing all this in such warm weather!  I am ready for the cold.  Anyway.... we had a hay ride, picked out a tree for the boys bedroom that THEY cut down!  (I picked a pre-cut Fir for the dining room)  We got to see goats, chickens, play with the friendlist lab puppy, and had a duck race.  It was quite an experience!  I'll post more pictures of this in it's own blog post later.  Unfortunately we were all tired and cranky by the time we got home... and had a difficult time getting the trees to stand up straight in their stands... so we did not get them lit or decorated.  That will be this weeks goal! 

We also started the Christmas Angel this week.  It's similar to the cute and famous Elf on the Shelf.  There's a sweet story that you read then the kids find the angel with her message in gold of a good deed to do for the day.  Henry found ours first thing this morning in the undecorated Christmas tree with the idea to bake cookies for a new neighbor! 

Oh! And one more thing!  We got to harvest broccoli yesterday.  I am amazed at how different it is than the store bought stuff. So flavorful, smells sooo good, and much more tender.  We snacked on it raw yesterday and today I'm steaming it to go with my lunch!  Mmmmm

What have you done to prepare for Christmas?  Any special traditions you'd like to share?