It still looks a lot like Christmas

Most decorations went up before Thanksgiving. But, we saved the trees for after Thanksgiving- our tradition. I love the magic of Christmas decorations. The lights, the smells, the memories... I have something Christmasy in almost every room in the house. A small tree in the upstairs bedrooms, the kids' tree in the gameroom,

the main tree in the living room,

and next year I hope to add a tree in the front room. It's so much fun taking out the ornaments, remembering and telling the stories behind them, rediscovering new ones bought to represent special times this year.

Tinsel, our elf on the shelf, came to visit around Thanksgiving and found lots of great places to keep an eye on things. Jacob was very concerned, first thing in the morning, about where Tinsel was. However, Tinsel didn't help motivate Jacob to improve his behavior. Beth was still amazed by Tinsel's magic arrival in a new place, but she wasn't quite as panicked about her behavior as she was last year.

One evening, I decided to play around with lighting and settings on my camera. I had SO much fun taking pictures of decorations! I'm learning to just go for it with the settings, and I can always delete pics I don't like. I love digital photography!