Making our preparations for Christmas

It is the Christmas Season. After Thanksgiving my brother David and his family helped my mother put up her Christmas tree and to decorate the house. I did have some supervisory role in the process.

For the last 27 years Deb and I have enjoyed a "real" cut Christmas tree. When we were first married and tree shopping there were trees available for purchase almost everywhere. It seemed that every store carried some. We were always very particular looking for just the right one. When Larry and Shelly got old enough we began to go to Christmas tree farms and cut our own.

The last few years we have purchased a fir from Wal Mart in Texarkana (our local Wal-Marts do not carry "real" trees). Yesterday we drove to Texarkana and found the perfect tree remarkably quickly; had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then drove home to erect and decorate. My job is to get the tree into the stand and to put the lights on the tree (I like a lot of lights). After that is done Deb takes over and hangs the ornaments and makes it all come together. She was about half way through when I snapped this picture last night.

One of my favorite things in the world is to have a fire burning in the fireplace, the Christmas tree all lit up, the lights off and to just sit on the couch and enjoy - sometimes with a cup of hot chocolate. As we all get caught up in the season let us not forget that it is all about celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas