It is time to decorate the house for Christmas

For those of you who know my taste in decorations, you know this means tasteful, like right out of the magazine Southern Living or Better Homes and Gardens.  So First thing to go up is of course an inflatable reindeer Santa -- delighted the kids as is evident from the photo above.  I mean this baby is what everyone needs.  Well if not this - at least one inflatable of some such similar yard art type  stuff that the uninformed and ill mannered refer to as red-neck mess.

As you can see this is an asset to any room and will engage the most discerning of guests as is noted below.  The size can be a bit intimidating for some of the smaller crowd, but that is not all bad. 

Now another big project is the Arrangement Of The Angels and Other Small Objects on the Mantel.  This is a task that Laura did for upteen years prior to setting out on her own.  This was often done with Mom, well it was done again this time with two daughters who took the task very very seriously as they should

 
The sorting and arrangement is done very carefully as many of these angels are older than either of these girls grandparents, --- and most come with stories.  It was a fun special time.  (The "spot" on Lydia's head is a sticker from earlier activity time - that is just where she puts them)

and yes upon completion of the Placing of the Angels on the Mantel  we moved directly into tree decorating time.

and we stretched and we talked and we moved things around and we put more and more on the tree. 

and just before dinner since the day had been so uneventful, we opened special early Christmas presents from Great Grandmother Hodges and Isaac has been pushing around a red and blue truck

 

 

And Julianna and Lydia have been playing a new game and working on crafts.  The game,  LadyBug, is somewhat like CandyLand where you move forward and backward dependent on draw of the cards and instructions on the board.  As I was going through the instructions ( yes I do occasionally follow instructions)  and showed Julianna the the " Go Back 3 spaces " card, she said, " we don't play with those cards.  I replied, "well here we will"   She looked at me a little askance, and slowly said "well OK" .   So we did.   She loved the excitement of it.   We had a good time.  I won.  Perhaps she will win future games.  It is fun and we did enjoy it.  Later we played with Laura and Lydia, Laura won.