Getting ready for Christmas...

I have had a really hard time this year getting into everything this year. It is hard for me to celebrate things without Nick here, and it makes me really sad. I have been trying to force myself into getting ready for Christmas so my girls don't feel like they are missing out on anything. The last thing I wanted to do was climb up in a dirty attic to try and get all the Christmas decorations down and then try and figure out how Nick hooked them all up every year, but that is exactly what my girls wanted. Luckily I am really blessed to have a lot of good friends who are always more than willing to come over and help me with anything I need help with. On Saturday my friends Jenn and Dave came over with their kids to help me. The kids were more than happy to climb up into the attic with Dave to get all the Christmas decorations down. While Dave got busy on other "chores" I needed done :), the four older kids got to work setting up all the yard decorations. It was so awesome to see how excited all the kids were to do this and they all worked so well together. It made it so fun for my girls to have other kids there to share this with instead of just focusing on how sad it is that their dad can't be here to help them (which is what they kept saying the day before we did this). It took so much stress off me, and now it all looks so good. It has actually helped me to get more in the mood to celebrate. Now every time I walk in the house and see all our decorations it makes me happy.

After we were done setting everything outside Jenn and I went inside to do a few things in the house. She helped me make stuffed mushrooms that I needed to bring to a Christmas party I was going to that night. (actually she did it all while I took a shower) While we were in the house the kids were outside working on a special project of their own. Before our friends left Kaylee and JR were so excited to show us their special dance number they had been working on, complete with a dip and everything. It was so cute!! Thanks again guys for all your help.

On Sunday after dinner it was time to decorate the tree. The girls were so excited they could hardly stand it. It was so nice to see the big girls help Brooklyn out and show here where to put Everything. Jeanine helped too, she lifted the kids to reach spots that were a little out of their reach. It was so fun, and now my house smells really good.

Here is what the finished product of the outside looks like.