It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

No, it hasn't snowed here, but the lights are up and the tree trimmed. It is a joy to watch the girls enthusiasm for Christmas this year. They remember every detail from last year, and they jumped up and down as we took each decoration out of its box. Their joy is contagious!

It all began with our family trip to cut down the Christmas tree. As you may remember from last year, and from Halloween this year, that Jaelyn is deathly afraid of Santa. The whole trip there she kept repeating "I don't want to see Santa." to which we kept answering "You don't have to talk to Santa, just wave and keep walking." When we got there she immediately spotted Santa, so kept within a 20+ ft. radius of him. Kaia ran right up to talk with him, along with Josh, so I got my camera out. I called Kellen over for photos, and Josh scooped Jaelyn up and told her he would hold on to her. Surprisingly she let him stand right next to Santa, and she even "pet" his costume when Josh told her to. She would not speak to him though, but for the next couple of days, all she would say to anyone she met was "I so brave. I not scared of Santa!" That's a huge improvement for her.

As you can see, we were a bit tuckered out by the time we were all through, so getting a halfway decent photo of the whole family around the tree was a challenge. Tomorrow is December 1, which means "No-shave November" is over for Kellen. Yep, he and some of his buddies took on the challenge for the month. I think he's anxious to get rid of it too.