Christmas Preparations at Our House

This is the week every year we pull out the Christmas decorations. I know some of you think it is too early but we usually go to our parent's for Thanksgiving and love coming home to our house ready for Christmas. As you can see, Mariah believes to have found a new best friend! 

It is fair to say that Mariah is plenty over-stimulated with everything. Jeremy always decorates the outside. So while he was decorating on Friday, Becca and I made our way to the eye doctor for her then on to the hospital. Friends of ours had a baby! 

We came home after a marathon shopping trip to Walmart. Feeding a family of seven is expensive! Especially when three of those five children have decided that they will eat non-stop! I believe the price of groceries goes up every time I shop. 

Mariah enjoys our shopping trips. To be a little more accurate, she loves helping put the groceries away. See what I mean? Evidently, she wanted some Root Beer. 

While she was napping, we decided it would be the perfect time to put up one of our trees. For some reason, Jeremy decorates outside and it is my job to assemble the two largest trees. I am in charge of stringing the lights. We have one pre-lit tree and the other two are not. I like pre-lit but what happens when those lights go bad? Once Mariah got up we introduced her to a Christmas tree. She immediately made her way over to the tree and what was the first thing she did......she grabbed a branch and just shook!

We could hardly get her to hold still for a picture!  Can you see the "spice" in her expression? Ironically, she is fascinated with the reflection of the Christmas lights in my glasses.

I cannot move on without sharing our Christmas house. For those of you that know my hubby, he gives everyone and everything a nickname. A few years ago he decided to take the responsibility of setting up my village pieces. I was happy concede! Under the Christmas tree in the living room is Christmas Town. Here is the west side of town.

Here is the east side of town.....

Notice the church? If you look closely you'll see the "pastor" standing outside. Jeremy puts him there every year. The difference is, this year we have a larger church. Jeremy was happy to announce the building project and new church!

Under the one end table is Tiny Town. Basically, it is a miniature village that tonight was wrecked due to category 5 hurricane. Hurricane Mariah came in unexpectedly. The town had to rebuild, most houses and businesses were rebuilt in entirely different locations.

Last but not least we have our Kurzweil Village. This village is set up on top of my piano. My piano is a Kurzweil, hence the village name.

Next picture....

Nothing is completely done but I think I will throw in the white flag. Mariah is LOVING all of this. We did decorate our living room tree this evening. 

This week held a lot of birthdays for our family. My sister had a birthday, my nephew had a birthday, and my sister-in-law had a birthday.  It seemed fitting to have a baby born this week too. Here is our sweet big girl more than happy to relieve the parents.

Mariah loves to watch the kids play outside. As usual they make their way over and play with her. This explains why the glass in the front door is atrocious!

Come on guys!!!! Where are you?

Since we put up the Christmas decorations, we had to move a few pieces of furniture. This also excited Mariah. Evidently, my piano is better to play on  the opposite side of the room. 

She loves playing with Kyle! She can now say his name too.

Next post I will try to show our Christmas trees completely done! Until then, have a Happy Thanksgiving.