Never too Early for the Tree, Right?

This year we decided to put up our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving. It seemed really early, especially since it was 90 degrees out (not that it's much cooler even closer to Christmas) but we figure that if this year was like the last two Christmases, Christmas spirit is difficult to come by and we need all the time we can get! The kids were fine with it, and were super excited to pull out all of our decorations. We don't have much. We have a fake tree that we got for free from someone who got a newer one, we have a few homemade ornaments, a few cheap ornaments from the store here and lights. Oh, and also some garland. The tree is pretty sad, but once we put everything on, it actually looks really pretty.

I think the kids' most special Christmas tradition is "Gold boy." We bought it the first Christmas we were here. It was before we were given the bigger tree so for a few weeks it was our only tree. And the kids got attached to it. It goes in their room and is their nightlight for the month.

It was hot, but we still had to have hot chocolate. One day this tradition will actually make sense (next time we're in the US for Christmas).