o christmas tree

On Monday morning we had to take the van to the shop.
The window busted the night before and the brakes needed to be checked.
So, we all piled in the two door car and headed to the shop.
Micah was so excited to get to ride in the car (might have been a first for him).

When we got back from the shop we decided to bust out the Christmas decorations.
We would have done it sooner but we were not sure the state our house would be in.
You've heard me talk about a big financial issue that we're facing...
well I guess I can just come out and say it...
it's not really a big deal to anyone but us.
We have to have our foundation repaired.
UGH!
It stresses me out just saying it.

Lots of cracks, doors that don't stay shut, some that don't open, slopes and other things tipped us off that we might have an issue. We've had four companies come and take a look at it. We've gotten four outrageously expensive estimates. We're not excited. But it needs to be done. We'd take a huge hit on the house if we tried to sell it in this condition. There's more to it but I don't want to get into it right now.

We also knew we were going to need a new roof when we bought the house. I prayed and prayed for hail damage but never thought it would happen. We knew it was time for a new roof because of leaks in the ceiling in our kitchen. So a roofer was at our neighbors house and I asked him to come take a look at ours. Turns out we had hail damage...from February! Ugh! If only we'd had it looked at earlier! oh well. God did answer our prayer on that one! The roofers didn't make it yesterday so we'll get a new roof today.

ANYWAY...
back to my real post.
We didn't know if we were going to have the foundation work done in December or if we were going to wait till the new year. It now seems as though we're going to wait...so we decided to get to decorating the place.

The kids had a blast.
They were getting all the branches out.
Dancing to the music.
Ohhing and ahhing over every little thing.
Micah still says, "WOW" everytime he sees the tree!
It's precious and priceless...
I'll have to try and record it for you to hear somehow.

And after dinner we went driving around to look at Christmas lights.
It was just a great day of family memory making!
Here are a few random shots of setting up the Christmas tree.

My grandmother made this angel...and gave it to my other grandmother. How sweet is that?! I'm so proud to have it grace the top of our tree.