The Christmas Tree Is Up!

Typically, in our home we have our tree up and decorated by the first Monday of December. Since Tom's promotion at work, he has been working longer hours. Tanner seems to have YM, basketball practice, home work group or school activity each night of the week. Spencer has a reading class and basketball practice as well. So it is hard to get us all together one night to do our family activity. Our Christmas Tree went up in phases this year. One day while Tom was at work and the boys were at school I pulled the tree and decorations out of storage. The boxes sat in the family room for 5 days before I had a chance to get the tree out of the box, set up and branches arranged. Spencer was so anxious to get the tree decorated. Tom and Spencer got the lights working on the pre-lit tree. I love the tree when the lights are working. But that is a story for another time. One night when Tom and Tanner were at scouts, Spencer and I decorated the tree. I put the hooks in the ornaments and Spencer decorated the tree. It took us an hour. Once he was done it was time for bed. Tom and Tanner came home and giggled when they saw the tree. I looked up and realized I hadn't help Spencer put any of the ornaments on. He reached as high as he could and managed to get the lower 3/4 of the tree decorated. I wish I would have taken a picture of that. Tom and Tanner helped get the top part of the tree decorated. This year was Spencer's turn to put the angel on the tree. He was really excited. Last year we got a new angel and the boys thought it was so cool. Spencer climbed on Tom's shoulders and got the angel on top. I am so glad it is up. It seemed like it was a lot more work to get it done this year. But it is so nice to have that extra Christmas spirit a tree brings into your home. We have been working diligently as a family and individually to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. Our stake president challenged each of us at the first part of November to set this goal. He said if we did, we would have the best Christmas ever. I don't think that means we will have the biggest Christmas ever. I think it means we will all have a better understanding of the spirit of Christmas. I pray that we can accomplish this goal as a family and as individuals. It has been fun for me to see the boys reading and marking their scriptures. Hopefully this weekend, we get to Temple Square to see the lights.