I remember as a kid setting up the Christmas tree. It was always looked forward to. My dad would string the lights then he would put a hook on the ornaments and hand them to each of us to go hang on the tree. I remember being so proud when we were done and I loved just sitting a looking at the lights and reading by the tree and playing by the tree. Ryan (my brother) and I had these little critters inside a small box that we made at one point and we used to play with them. I think his was a chick and mine was a beaver. I still have it and I love the memories that come when I pull it out each Christmas. We also had smurf ornaments that we would play with and a few years ago my parents cleaned out their Christmas stuff and gave these to me. My kids love to play with them too. I love the season of Christmas! The memories it invokes of past times and the new memories I get to make with my own little family are priceless.

Notice all the ornaments clumped together. I love it. After the kids went to bed I rearranged everything and the bottom of our tree this year had nothing on it because the little monster in the above picture is the master of disaster and pulled everything off the tree he could get his little mitts on. After he bit into a glass orb and I had to fish bits of glass out of his mouth I decided all ornaments had to be adjusted for baby proofing. Well, duh...I forget all this stuff.