Decorating the Tree

Poppy came to visit in December, and we proceeded to have a family tree decorating party -- the first one that Owen had really participated in. We turned on some Christmas soul music (a Pandora station started with Otis Redding's "Merry Christmas, Baby" really did us right) and set to work.

Unpacking the decorations, Owen and Poppie found these fun hats from last year:
We hung lights and strands of cranberry beads:
Owen got to hang lots of ornaments. He seemed to know which ones were the breakable ones that should be kept out of his reach, because he would always proactively suggest that one of us hang those "up high":
After the tree was decorated and properly sung to (in our family, the final step of decorating the tree is singing to it -- it is not proper to have an unsung tree), we lay down underneath the tree to look up through its branches.
Bill did this when he was growing up so that he could smell the tree and admire the tree from a different perspective and squint his eyes and make the Christmas lights turn into bright, fuzzy balls of color. The first time I tried it, I was sold. And, this year, Owen tried it for the first time, and was a convert as well.
In fact, this became somewhat of a nightly ritual for the rest of the Christmas season:
The next day, Poppie gave Owen one of his Christmas presents early - a Melissa & Doug easel:
Owen was very excited, and we quickly got suited up for painting:Here is the artist at work:
And here are Owen and Poppie having some laughs outside:
With our tree up, we were ready for Christmas.