Getting ready for Christmas...

The first Christmas is a big deal. So in an effort to prepare for this momentous occasion, we decided to get our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving...a little early and it was a little freezing and rainy, but we persevered. We usually cut down our tree, but this year, it was too cold.

So for the sake of the "first tree", Tim still had to pretend.

We choose our tree in about eight minutes, had a quick photo shoot, paid the man for the tree, threw it on the top of the Forerunner, and were back in the car four minutes later.

Canaan was not sure what had just happened.


After enslaving Tim to take all the boxes and trunks full of Christmas stuff down from the attic as well as checking and untangling hundreds of lights, the tree was up by December 1. THAT was a first for us. We wanted to make sure that Canaan had plenty of time to enjoy her first Christmas tree!

She loved it.

She especially loved the fact that her mother refused to vacuum up any more pine needles after the seventh time of vacuuming in only three days. Canaan grew to love playing on the floor ridden with poky pine needles as well as being careful not to eat the pine needles that would get stuck in her stuffed animals.

That's why it takes more than eight minutes to pick out a good Christmas tree--questions like, "Does this tree shed a lot?" are good to ask.

That was Canaan's FIRST lesson in choosing a Christmas tree.

And what Christmas would be complete without attending a Tacky Sweater Party? Hosted at Dustin and Angela Lyle's, Canaan was adorned in her own felt-Christmas-tree-sown-with-a-gold-star-at-the-top-tacky-red-sweater. Tacky sweaters are kind of cute on a baby--not as cute as a sweater vest on her father or a Scottie-dog-complete-with-shoulder-pads sweater on her mother, though.

Finally, the time came for Canaan to visit Santa Claus. We leave right after church to try and beat the mall lines. Apparently, people start standing in the Santa line at 5:30 in the morning. So, no Santa that day.

We then decide to take her to a more remote location where Santa has his own little house that kids come and visit with him. Waaay cuter anyway. We head off on a rainy Tuesday night only to find out that he only sees kids on Mondays and Thursdays.

So, for Santa attempt number three, we load up on Thursday to arrive and find zillions of kids running amuck in the front yard of this little Santa house. We put our name in, thinking we'd be called 20 minutes later. Instead, three hours later, at 9:45 at night, hours after Canaan has fallen asleep in her car seat, after eating dinner at Tim's parents house (thankfully only five minutes down the road), and catching 30 minutes of a Christmas movie on TV, our number is called to see Santa. This had better be good.

And he was! Not only was he FREE, but he had a real beard and the Santa suit wasn't so polyester-looking!

Canaan was thrilled to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas...her two front teeth.

Seriously. So that her parents can finally sleep through the night again.

She tried to show Santa where the teeth would go. Preferably two straight teeth.

She was a little upset when Santa told her he didn't work in that department. A cute doll will have to do.

Of course, we caught it all on video! We also filmed her rendition of "Away in a Manger", a family tradition we'll do every year--the kids singing that song in front of the tree. This year, Canaan was only interested in the ornaments on the tree.