This year is the first time we haven’t had a real tree.  All our growing up years and all our raising children years we always had a live tree.  But, since neither of us can get down on the floor to tighten the tree stand and water the tree, we had to go with an artificial tree.  It isn’t very life like and there is no wonderful pine smell, but it is better than no tree at all.

Since we had 6 grand kids with us, we decided to let them decorate the tree.  The twins both wanted to put the star on top, so their daddy had one in each arm to get the job done.  This year I chose to do a Teddy Bear Christmas.  That means we decorate all in Teddy Bears, even down to Teddy wrapping paper.  I have lots of Teddy Bears so that is never a problem.

The children took turns placing the ornaments on the tree.  Sometimes Mom and Dad had to help, but Grandpa and Grandma just watched.  It was quite entertaining.  Everyone had a great time and the tree looked very Teddy Bearish.  We had Christmas music playing, we all were singing along and when we were finished, we all had Christmas cookies for a snack.

It is a bit unusual to have Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving, but you do what you have to do when your children grow up and move far away.  The spirit of Christmas can be in our hearts anytime.  We only have to cultivate it and concentrate on having fun.