Today was our Children’s Christmas Program at church. Ella had to wear a mask as she was a “stable mouse”. Adorable as she was as a mouse, I did try and talk her into removing her mask during the performance so that I could get clear video of her face. Apparently she was too much of a professional to do such a thing. The video is still good, though. She’s adorable. There’s even a possible hand-holding event that we had a long discussion about when we got home!

We put up our Christmas Tree today. Why? Because we could. This time of year is EXTREMELY busy for the pastoral-family, so we took advantage of my day off and got our Christmas-decorating on!

We jammed to a Pandora Christmas channel and even had our traditional breakfast of freshly baked orange rolls!

Enjoy our time-lapse video (becoming a tradition in our family).

When you’ve watched this year’s video, be sure and re-watch some of our previous ones – 2008, 2006.

It’s fun to watch the clock on the wall during the video to see just how much time elapses while we’re decorating. We also have a family-tradition of praying after we’ve completed the tree together, asking God to bless the Season and to remind us to keep Him first through the hectic times we’re sure to face in the coming weeks. We’re also reminded at how blessed we are as a family as we put the ornaments on the tree and remember the stories behind the ornaments each year!

Ella had a blast helping this year. Every time she put an ornament on the tree it went in the same 1-foot by 1-foot section. We’re leaving them there!