Gaudete Sunday.

The kids were so excited to see the pink candle being lit today. They didn't really understand at first why one candle was different, but when we talked about the joyous coming of our Lord they got so happy!! "It's almost Christmas!"

As our Advent traditions continue, on Saturday we all went to pick out our fresh tree. The kids were practically jumping out of their seats as we pulled into the parking lot. Unlike other years when we have actually cut down our own tree, this year we visited a local place and purchased a pre-cut tree. Mostly because our regular tree farm didn't have trees ready to cut this year and because DH was on-call so we couldn't travel far. We still went back and forth between what tree to get and we finally made a family decision on the perfect tree!!

Christian was happy running among the trees.

The kids playing Hide and Seek together.

Christian was mesmerized by the lights making up this Mickey Mouse.

The family posing by Frosty.

After we got home, we put our tree up in the living room and the kids were a little bummed that we didn't get to decorate it right away. We had so many plans for Sunday, that the kids thought that we would never get to put the lights on the Christmas tree. Of course, the next day the kids were excited to go to Mass. Marco wanted to see what vestments our priest was going to be wearing (he has become increasingly interested in this lately), and Anthony and Isabella just wanted to go to their class. We also had plans to decorate cookies at a friend's house after Mass, so there was plenty to do.

We finally got home and the most exciting part was unwrapping all the ornaments from their boxes. It was fun to tell stories that went along with the ornaments. "That ornament was given to me at the hospital when your sister was born." "That ornament is from when Mommy and Daddy first got married." "You made this ornament when you were only 2 years old." It was like a little history of our family!! We actually were so wrapped up in telling stories that we forgot to take pictures of us decorating the tree! But here is the final product!!

Our tree!!!

Sometime this week we will be putting up our second tree upstairs. This is one that belongs to the kids and they get to make the decorations and put it how they like! It's great fun and the artificial tree has been with us for almost 10 years!