Early Christmas....

From the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation--
Bethany: Is your house on fire, Clark?
Clark: No, Aunt Bethany, those are the Christmas lights.

It didn't take long for us to get into the Christmas spirit. I'm sure our neighbor's are wondering if the Griswalds moved into the neighborhood. Our neighbor's 11-year old daughter, Landon, was so excited to see us decorating that she offered to help us put the decorations up outside and she stayed for dinner and helped us decorate our tree. I made homemade hot chocolate and we put the movie "Polar Express" on while we decorated. Landon was amazed by our ornaments. Many are home made and/or given to us by family/friends. And, many are ornaments we've picked up from places that we have traveled to. So, each one has a story.

This is a momentous year for us. It is the first year we have had white lights on our Christmas tree. I have always wanted white lights on our tree but Jeff was adamant that colored lights were the way to go so I've just always gone along with it. The first year we put lights up outside of our house he insisted on getting colored lights for that too. Instead of looking like Christmas decorations, our house looked like a Mexican restaurant. I kept telling him to put up a "Feliz Navidad" sign so that the look would be complete. But, after that decorating mistake, he agreed with me that white lights looked best outside but he still wanted the colored lights on the tree. After 13 years of marriage, Jeff has acquiesced and we have white lights on our tree this year. I know how hard this was for him so it really means a lot! Now, after seeing everything decorated, he agreed that it really looked nice. I'm so appreciative that I finally get to enjoy a white light Christmas. But, I fully realize that this is my one year to enjoy the white lights everywhere and I'm going to! Of course, he has also given some leeway to my desires through the years. I think the order of decorations are: lights, garland, then ornaments. He thinks the order is: lights, ornaments then garland. But, each year we have put the garland on before the ornaments. Next year, we think we'd like to use the old style large colored lights and actually string popcorn instead of using garland.
We also put out our Christmas village and other family Christmas heirlooms as well. It's been quite some time since we put all of our Christmas decorations out. I guess not being able to really decorate for Christmas while living in our RV made us realize how much we enjoyed it and missed it. The ceramic Christmas tree below is one that Gail's mom made.

We finally purchased a train to go around the base of the tree. Jeff has been looking at them for years. He selected the Polar Express version. He says its for the kids. I'm not so sure about that.
The outside has a few decorations too. Landon said no one else on our street put decorations up outside last year. I'm guessing everyone is wondering what the bright light is on our street right now.

I was also hoping our outdoor decorations would cheer up the family next door to us on the other side. They found out that their 22-month old granddaughter (who lives with them), Aspen, has Leukemia. I was hoping that when Aspen comes home from her chemo treatments that she'll enjoy the view. With her immune system being compromised, she won't be able to get out much. Please keep this little girl and her family in your prayers during this holiday season.

I figured I'd post a few pictures so everyone can see how it looks at our new house. Particularly because I suspect, Simba, our cat, will probably disassemble everything on the inside before long.