O Christmas Tree (and a Santa-rant)

This weekend we went to get our first real family Christmas tree.   It's taken me a few years, but I finally talked my husband into shelling out the bucks for a real tree.  Actually, he won a contest on the radio, but whatever, I got my real tree! : )

I had in my head how this little excursion would go, and it would include us all bundled up, looking mighty Christmasy, and coming home to unload the tree and drink hot chocolate, however it was 76 degrees outside when we got our tree.  We were a little hot!

Eli enjoyed running through the rows of trees.

We finally picked one out.

Thanks to Dave's Christmas trees and Sunny 100 for the tree. : )

After lunch and nap Wesley strung the lights and then we all started decorating!

In case you didn't know, a diaper and crocs are the way to go these days!  Eli is going through a "take my clothes off" stage.  Thankfully it just seems to be at home and not in public.

I could just eat that kid up.

What happens when Eli decorates.  : )

 Love that boy!

(Yes, that's taco soup still on his face from supper.  He was too excited about the "business" tree to even get his face cleaned!)

Contemplating where to put the last few ornaments.

 

Between Facebook and Instagram, I got to noticing how many people have the Elf on a Shelf, or some variation of that.  While I think it's a cute idea, it is not something Eli will be participating in.  I don't mean that to be judgmental if you have an elf.  It really is cute.  Before now we haven't had a 'parenting strategy', for lack of a better term, when it comes to Santa Claus.  We knew we would do Santa, but not to what extent.  Now that Eli is getting a little older, those things are starting to take more shape.  I want Eli to believe in the magic, so to speak, of Santa Claus.  In fact, we're going to a friend's house next week and the big guy will be dropping by, BUT we want Santa to be a very small part of Christmas.  We're teaching Eli that Santa leaves gifts because the wise men left gifts for Jesus.  We're not doing the whole naught/nice list thing.  So that's why we're not doing the elf.  I think it plays Santa up too much.  I want our focus to be Christ, not Santa and elves.  In fact, we only have 1 Santa Clause in all of our Christmas decorations.

Ok, Santa rant over.  : )

Stay tuned to see the rest of our trees.  That's right.  We have 4.  Crazy, I know.