Christmas Day in Photos

We spent Christmas day at our house in Morgantown this year.  My immediate family joined us for a big lunch and more gifts, and my Aunt Sherrie, Uncle John and cousin Chris stopped by for a few hours as well.  It was so great having that time alone as a family, yet still being able to share part of the day with a few of our loved ones.  Kerriann got completely spoiled by all of us and is still loving all of her new toys!

Christmas Tree Hunting

The weekend before Kevin came home Kerriann, Christiane and I went home to visit my parents for a night to help my mom put up and decorate her tree, and to cut down the tree for my dad's house.

We met up at the tree farm in Heaters, WV.  Cutting down the tree is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.  Buying a tree from a parking lot is just not for me.  Maybe I was spoiled growing up, but there is nothing like picking out a tree and cutting it down yourself to kick off the holidays!

It was freezing that afternoon, but Kerriann didn't seem to mind.  It was also extremely muddy, yet all she wanted to do was run away from us.  Christiane and I both ended up covered in mud from trying to wrangle her for the half hour that we were on the mountain.

It was harder than usual to find "the one" because disease had killed a lot of the type of tree that we were looking for.  Forgive me for forgetting what that type was ;).

Once we had the tree home, we set to work on decorating!

And Tica promptly claimed the spot under the tree as her favorite spot for the next few weeks.

Here is one from my phone of our completed work...

And one of Santa's little helpers...

And one more of Kerriann with the mini tree at my mom's.  She wanted to sit by Sponge Bob hahah... we took so many trying to get her to sit still, and that was the only way to persuade her!

Un-trimming the Tree

I just cannot bring myself to take down the Christmas tree this year.

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved the warm and fuzzy feelings that comes along with a lit tree.  For some reason Christmas lights have always made me feel safe and secure, and this year I look for that feeling more than ever.  As I trimmed the tree, I hung each ornament in anticipation of spending the holiday with Kerriann AND Kevin.  And now that that time has come and gone, it's hard for me to let go of the positive feelings that I associate with our Christmas tree, our FIRST family Christmas tree.

I know sooner or later it's just going to have to come down.  But I'm going to enjoy it for at least a few more days as I reminisce about all of the memories from the past few weeks.