Flashback Friday

 While we were setting up our Christmas tree, I couldn't believe how big my girls seemed! I couldn't help but remember when we set up our tree in Maryland. It was our first Christmas as a family since Joe's deployment and it was a wild and crazy day! I posted about it on our family website, way back before I had a blog. I found the post and read through it, and I have to admit:  I got a little choked up. I even found the pictures from that photo shoot! Hope you enjoy:

December 2005

We did the decorating thing yesterday and Joe handled it all like a trooper.   He was a little tired before we could even begin the tree thing, because in an effort to avoid public embarrassment, I suggested that we do the girls Christmas Portraits at home ourselves.   We dressed them in their cute sweaters, curled hair, set up the tripod and rearranged the furniture for the best lighting.   With buckets full of candy to bribe them with, we set out to record forever them flopping around on the couch, bawling, grabbing each other in headlocks and pure pandemonium.   For a brief moment, we understood why some species eat their young.   Joe maintained his great attitude and somehow, we managed to get one decent shot of both of them.   this was quite a feat considering we only took about 500 pictures.

  When the photo shoot was finally over, we (by we, I mean Joe) rearranged the furniture once again to make space for our Christmas tree.   After much looking and thought, Joe let his dream of an artificial tree die, and we headed to Home depot for the real deal.   But first, we stopped at Ariella's house to see if she wanted us to pick one up for her (her husband is deployed).   Ariella did not want us to get her a tree, but did ask if we would take Nona with us.   So after a quick carseat swap, we headed out.   Home depot went surprisingly well.   We checked out about twenty different trees, had one minor tantrum in deciding who would sit where in the shopping cart, and only had to take 3 mile long trecks to the potty.   While we were gone on the last potty trip, Joe found the perfect tree. We loaded 3 toddlers and the tree into the van and headed to Chick fil-A for lunch. That went pretty well. The girls loved playing in all the slides and Joe was a great sport about crawling through all of the tunnels designed for 5 year olds to rescue Nona, who had climbed all the way to the top, but was too scared to come down.

We made it home and were so excited to bring the tree in.   Who knew that something that looked so small in Home Depot would look so huge in our living room?!   While I was thrilled to have such a great looking tree, I realized that our current floor plan would never work, so we (Joe) rearranged the furniture one more time.   The girls were delighted with the whole process and loved playing with all of the Christmas decorations.   Rachel particularly loved cuddling the Teddy Bear basket that Uncle Ray sent us years ago.   Annabel loved playing with the lights, and the lower right hand corner of our tree has an amazing amount of ornaments crammed on three branches.  All in all, a great day.