December 3

Decorating the tree has always been one of my favorite parts of preparing for Christmas.  I love how the rituals of the Christmas holiday visibly demonstrate Michaela's growth from year to year and will for Avery as well.  Michaela celebrated her first Christmas at three months old, so we didn't even have to worry about her touching the tree.  Avery is nine months now and all over the place so her first Christmas will be a different experience.  This year, Michaela was more than excited to decorate the tree.  She loved opening the boxes and looking at all the ornaments from last year and adding the new ones into the group.  Her strategy for the decorating did not change much from last year; many ornaments ended up on the same branch on the bottom right side of the tree.  Ryan made the interesting observation that she put all the ornaments on facing the tree too.  Once all the ornaments were on the tree we asked Michaela which ornament was her favorite and she said "Tinkerbell".  Tinkerbell was her new ornament for this year and like years past it commemorated her Halloween costume.  We tried to include Avery in the decorating as well and not surprisingly she was more interested in trying to get the ornaments into her mouth.  Her ornament was a Baby's First Christmas ornament of Pooh and Piglet together.