Rules are meant to be broken...

Wes has a rule that we can't decorate for Christmas until Thanksgiving is over...there have been a few times I've had the chance to break the rule and this year was one of them. Since we are heading to Salt Lake & Wyoming for Thanksgiving I talked him into decorating early so that when we get home we'll be all ready.
We started with the outside lights, which totally made me homesick for AZ. First of all it was so cold, I kept coming inside so my legs would unthaw. Plus in AZ we had the perfect house for chirstmas lights - tons of palm trees. Last year I had our workers pull the front end loader in the front yard and lifted us up to the top of the house and trees - It looked awesome! This year, we have very few trees, and no front end loader. The only thing I do have is over 100 strings of lights. We got the top of the house done and the flower gardens, but not the trees. I'm hoping I'll have time Monday. I always love seeing the house at night to see how it looks. When I got home from running errands Wes had the house all lit up and it makes me smile every year. It's seriously one of my favorite things to do at christmas. The only thing were lacking is SNOW - I'm ready to have a little snow - we live in Wisconsin - there should be Snow, it makes it feel more like christmas, but I checked the 10 day planner and no snow in sight! I can't wait to get to Salt Lake& Temple Square - it always feels so festive, and if I'm lucky a little bit of snow!

Taylor was mad at me because I didn't let her on the roof - so we compromised on a picture on the ladder....she loves pictures of herself!

There's Wes with that famous "Mike Davis" hat. I'm not sure what they call that kind of hat, the only word I can come up with is "Ugly". But he is Married to that hat in the Winter, so I better get use to it.

Tate only got on the roof long enough for me to take his picture, once the picture was over - he was ready to get off. Tye would have spent the night up there if I would let him.


Next on the Agenda was the christmas tree, every year we buy everyone a ornament that highlights some memory of the past year. This is what we got this year. Wes - a Packer Ornament because he's gotten to go the the packer games with his work and because he got to go on a "PACK" trip with his Dad, Brother and Tye, which was his dream vacation. I got a New York ornament because Wes & I spent ten days on vacation there at a seriously plush Spa that I would play big bucks to go back to. Tye got a Baptism ornament because he was baptised this year. Tate got a "First year at School" ornament because he started Kindergarten this year and Taylor got a ballet ornament because this is her first year at ballet. I love this tradition, we stole it from Wes's parents, but It's so fun to line the ornaments up year by year and watch the kids put them on the tree. Our kids love it, and so do I.


Tye was the best help, he helped me put the lights on and dished out orders on how to hang the ornaments. It's so fun watching him get more and more responsible, and so excited.

This was the best moment of the night. A few years ago everyone got marsh mellow ornaments. Wes's is the hunting one and Tye's was the cowboy with a black hat. He purposely put them next to each other - side by side - and then said "me and dad are buddies...hunting buddies" It's always the smallest gestures that mean so much.

The following picture is what happens to my house when I am outside for 6 hours putting up Christmas lights and the kids are inside fending for themselves. Notice 3 boxes of empty cereal.

I still have the nativities, our Department56 collection and the inside decorating to do, but it's starting to look a lot like Christmas (underneath the mess of 3 kids & a husband)!

I choose Jingle Bells by the Dogs because we are babysitting our friends 3 dogs, and I'll I've heard the last 24 hours is dogs barking....even when I picked this song and it started playing all 4 dogs started barking.....what a life!