Random Christmas Preparations, Part 1

The weekend after Thanksgiving, as is a tradition in my family, we went Christmas tree hunting. In Iowa, it is a little different than in Colorado, Montana, or South Dakota. Like last year, we went to a Christmas tree farm. Last year, it was so cold that we took the first tree we saw. This year, no hats, no gloves, just sun. Our friends Van, Stacy, Sander and Levi joined us.
Wally and Sander are self-proclaimed "best friends."

Wally tried really hard to pull the tree like Daddy...

But in the end, decided holding Daddy's hand was just fine.

Well, maybe if Sander helped...

Wally thought having a tree in the house was pretty cool. He told me yesterday as we were taking it down that, "I want the tree to stay long time!"

Oh, bath time. Always cute, even if it is over.

We found a little old (I mean obviously really old) artificial tree in our attic, so it got to be Wally's tree in the basement. Here he had to pose by it with his trike.

Our church had a "Christmas Pageant" of sorts. We all had a soup dinner, got the kids dressed in rather lame costumes, and headed out in the bitter freezing cold for a rather miserable walk to a neighbors driveway. There they read the Christmas story, we sang songs (luckily it was cut down to only the first verses) and then toted miserable kids back to the church for cake. This was the best shot we had of Wally dressed as a lamb.