'Twas the Season...

Our holiday season sort of spans the time from Thanksgiving to New Year's. And, since I already posted about Thanksgiving... time to post more about Christmas.

We went and chopped down our tree at a local tree farm the Saturday after Thanksgiving. And, we had it up, lights on and decorated by the end of the day. That was a record for us! Usually, we get our tree home and lights on over Thanksgiving weekend... but the decorations don't get put on for a week or two later... mostly because we always get caught up in some sort of chaos.

The kids did a great job decorating it this year. They needed help getting decorations in the higher spots of course, but in general, they didn't bunch all the ornaments in one spot as they used to do. Both Rocco and Gabby were very involved with the decorating and really seemed to enjoy it. Giuliana sort of danced around and played with ornaments, broke ornaments, pulled some off the tree and put some on.









Some of the other *signs* of Christmas in our house were the swirl of colored lights going up our staircase; the baby J.esus in the manger scene; the cranberry, peppermint and holiday scented candles burning throughout the house; the beautiful holiday cards sent to us by so many friends and family; the darling Christmas tree place-card holders Gabby made for our Christmas dinner table; and then of course, the big signal to the kids that Christmas is right around the corner is seeing presents wrapped and under the tree.

And, as always... Matteo is in our constant thoughts. Holidays seem a little jaded ever since Matteo died... and I honestly think that helps keep us a bit more focused on the reason for the season, instead of getting carried away in the consumerism and crazy behavior that can devour people over the Christmas holiday. Gabby had a number of difficult moments that hit sporadically over the month of December. She broke down sobbing on one occasion... just missing her brother so much. It literally rips my heart out to see her hurt so much... and not be able to *fix* it. And, it takes everything in my power to not break down sobbing right along with her.

The first Christmas after Matteo died, a very dear friend of mine gifted us with a number of personalized ornaments with Matteo's photos. The kids always want to put those ornaments up first and they treat them with the utmost care. I included a couple photos of those ornaments here.