The halls? They're decked.

We usually have our tree up as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey's digested, but we were a little behind schedule this year. It took us until Saturday to get the tree decorated (and until today to get this posted!).

As usual, Ryan and Katie did a wonderful job adorning our tree with our eclectic assortment of ornaments.

Even though R&K have long outgrown the baby stuff, we still decorate with the kids' old favorites like Barney and Sesame Street--even if they do make me stick those ornaments on the back of the tree!

We have 11 years' worth of Texas Capitol ornaments (thanks to our friend Cynthia):
a few from our life BK (before kids):

Notice the "retro" film canister from WAY back in '93!

more than a couple of "Baby's First Christmas" and birthday ornaments:
a healthy assortment of superheroes and sports teams:

plenty of pop culture references:

and a variety of school and church craft projects:
Our tree is more refrigerator front than magazine cover, that's for sure! But we love all the memories and the ways our crazy personalities are represented on our tree.

So far this season, we've only lost one ornament: this souvenir from last year's California trip. With two cats in the house, it's probably just the first of several casualties, but whatchagonnado?

The only other downer from the day was the missing Granny box. We have 17 (I know, I know) Christmas boxes, and only 16 made it inside from the shed. By the time I opened them all and checked our inventory, I figured out that the missing one is the one with the oldest and most precious decorations: my grandmother's. There are a few other fragile decorations in that box, but I'm mainly missing the choir boys and the dainty little angel figures that were in there. There's also a Santa doll I've had since I was a baby. I usually put these priceless items on top of our piano where no frisky kitties can hurt them, so right now, there's an empty place up there where those heirlooms should go.

We're sure the box is still in the shed--somewhere. We'll need a nice, sunny day so we can unload and reshuffle all the stuff in there in search of the missing box. I know it's in there, but what if it's not? I cried, Brett and the kids reassured, I wiped my tears, and I'm holding my breath that we'll find it. Soon.

Saturday was also a great day for family time...

...and our first fire of the season!
Merry Christmas!