The beginning of the Christmas festivities

Every December 1st we put up our tree and attempt to put out all our other Christmas decorations. This gets to be an increasingly more difficult task to accomplish in one day as our family has expanded. But, we did get our lights up outside on the night of the 30th of November and our tree up on the morning of the 1st. The rest of the decorations managed to make their way out over the course of the weekend. It was a bit of an adventure putting up our tree this year, as Abby is waaaay more interested in removing and banging ornaments than Josiah ever was. Still, it's up, we're decorated, and things are feeling festive.On the night of the 1st, Chilliwack had it's annual Lights and Sounds Parade which we took the kids to. It was cold, but we were well prepared, and I'd rather brace myself for the wind for an hour than sit in the rain, so I didn't mind a bit. The kids had fun watching all the lit up trucks and floats, and of course, the highlight for Josiah was collecting the dozens of candy canes thrown in his general direction. It was a really, really great December 1st. A focused family day. Good start to the season. =)