Christmas Tree 2019 and Festivities

It was a busy few days.

Thursday night the children and I, plus The Bailey Trio, set up the church in preparation for the Room In The Inn shelter, housing 8 gentlemen with no homes. We’ve got that down to a science now.

Then, on Saturday we headed out to get our Christmas tree from the same place we have gone the last few years. We decorated the surprise candy cane tree for other patrons to find, then picked out our perfect tree. Caitlin was along to get her tree, too, so we put the new roof rack to the test with two trees!

Finding the tree was easy.

Wrestling it into the house was easy.

Then the annual “wrestle Dad under the tree” began.

Also seemed to be easy.

This guy.

We got the tree in the stand inside, but decorating would need to wait because we had a friend’s bowling birthday party in the afternoon. We haven’t been bowling in a long time!

Obviously I did not make the cakes!

Saturday night was the Hanging of The Greens and Talent Show at church. Good food, good friends, and some great talent.

Imani wanted to go to the church event, so Fi dropped her off at the church to stay overnight with us before heading to her annual holiday party with her co-workers. She also had a great time, but she had to get all fancied up for her holiday party, and she looked beautiful!

On our way home from church, I remembered it was the annual luminary lighting at the Memorial Gardens on the outskirts of town, so we drove out to see what thousands of luminaries look like on a crisp December night.

A quick stop at the grocery store so everyone had desired food for the evening and next morning, then home to settle in for the rest of the night.

It’s so relaxed having older kids for sleepovers. Buds and I headed off to bed while they had second supper, played games, laughed, and chatted. I love that Imani knows our home is her home.

They were all a little zonked at church the next morning.

The Christmas tree still needs to be decorated. I’m hopeful that we’ll at least get lights on it tonight.

No matter when we get it decorated, I still love our annual tree tradition. And the busy weekend was a great beginning to the Christmas Season.

Merry Christmas!