Mayor's Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony...

The boys came home on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and we got started decorating for Christmas right away. Our tradition (I LOVE holiday traditions!) is to turn on Christmas music while the KIDS put up the tree (I LOVE that part even more!) and then we decorate the tree, mantel and the rest of the house. Scott, Autumn and I got started Thursday night by making some new decorations and we decorated the mantel but wanted to wait for the boys to finish the house. We got the tree up and partially decorated before we had to get ready for the Mayor's Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony. Since the boys missed out on the first 2 nights of fun, I thought it would be fun to take them to Crown Center. We found a great parking spot and found a spot close to the stage. We saw the mayor, a celebrity (though none of us knew him), heard more great Christmas music and joined in on the countdown to light the tree. They passed out candles, sung Silent Night and passed the flame from the front of the crowd to the back. It was a beautiful sight. The Christmas tree is 110 feet tall and is bigger than the tree in Rockefeller Center and the President's tree. All the trees had white lights and after the countdown we saw another amazing fireworks show set to music. It was a lot of fun and the boys felt like they got to participate in our yearly traditions...funny how fireworks make you feel good about life, huh? After we got back home we had hot chocolate, watched a Charlie Brown Christmas and finished decorating our tree. It was a great family day that got us ready to celebrate our Thanksgiving on Saturday.

Christmas decorating...loud and fun...click the pic for a closer look...


Click the pic for a closer look.