Almost December

It`s the last day of November already - time to get out the advent calendars and start counting down the days to Christmas.  There`s no one more fun to be with at this time of year than the grandchildren. The only bad part about today was that I had to miss being at Aidan`s kindergarten Grandparent`s Day today, since we had to come down to Lethbridge for a few days.  I`m sure he had a fun time with his Auntie though and I can have some time with him when we go back to Edmonton on Monday.

Today I had the pleasure of taking care of Mike and Avril`s three kids, aged 6, 4 and 2, for a few hours. What a fun time we had!  As soon as they got here I announced that we were going to put up the Christmas tree and decorate it.  Kenny`s immediate response was ``Good, because we have lots of experience``.  They had helped put their own tree up just a few days ago.

So we all crawled down into the crawl space storage, except for Hannah who sat at the entrance holding a flashlight.  Kenny was shocked to see that I had five boxed Christmas trtees down there, and we shuffeled them around until we found the one I wanted - one that was only six feet tall and slim.  Next we went down to the basement storage and located three large plastic boxes of ornaments and decorations.  Rather than carry the heavy boxes upstairs, we opened them up down there and each of the kids made several trips up to the livingroom carrying smaller boxes of decorations.  They were so excited to help and to see what treasures Grammie and Papa had in their Christmas boxes.

(The following pictures are slightly blurry and out of focus.  I couldn`t find my `real`camera so used my new cell phone camera and was a bit unfamiliar with it.)

Kenny and Alex helped `fluff`the branches of the tree after Kenny advised Grammie which of the three parts of the artificial tree went where.

Hannah found the box of old ornaments which I hadn`t had on a tree in a dozen or so years, and put most of them on.  I didn`t go for style with my Christmas tree, but for fun and enjoyment of the kids.

 Alex was very careful with his placement of the ornaments, wanting to get each one just right.

Three Christmas angels under my tree.

Kenny took it upon himself to set out decorations on my sofa table.  He did a lovely job.  I don`t think I`ll be changing it at all.

And then he and Alex set up the small nativity set.  Somehow Joseph was missing this year so we promoted a shepherd to the role of Mary`s husband.

Then Avril arrived to take the kids home at the same time that Papa arrived with Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner, so our fun and visiting extended another couple of hours.  We took a plate of food to their Dad (our son Mike) who was working a few blocks away and had a visit with him before Avril took the kids home and put them to bed.

The kids brought Christmas to our home today.  It was a great time.