Taking it to the next level...

In trying to outdo ourselves (and neighbors) from last year, I was trying to brainstorm how we would be able to add new decorations without bursting at the seams. Then, last week, Ethan stated that he would like a Christmas room. I realized that instead of expanding outside the house, we could just build upwards! Each boy would get decorations for his own room. It turns out, it's a bit of a family tradition. When I told my mom, she informed me that as a little girl, she would take a small hatchet out to the woods and chop down her own little tree each year. Well, we decided to take the wussy route and took the short drive to AC Moore, no hatchet necessary! We picked up three small trees, three small wreathes, some ornaments and three little wooden E's. That evening, we wrapped the trees in tinsel and hung the snowmen they had selected. Everett refused to stand for a picture and immediately threw his on the floor in his brother's room, but Ethan was very proud of his tree as seen below...

He's added some additional ornaments, mostly to the same bottom branch and Josh said he caught him sleeping with his hand on the nightstand the other evening as if a miniature Santa would be stopping by to drop off some micro presents, so I guess you could say he's caught the bug.


In addition to the upstairs, Josh has been hard at work on the main level. Both trees made their way up from the basement and it was decided the only way to get all the boxes back to the depths of the storage area would be to empty them. We let Ethan get things started (since he wouldn't stop harassing us about it.) So, after Everett went to bed, Ethan the Elf began decorating...

                            Looks like Santa will need to bring him a step stool for next year.


The next day, as Josh hastily rehung ornaments on the tree before Ethan would notice, I closed all the blinds so as to "keep the crazy inside."I explained that while our close family and friends know we are slightly unhinged this time of year, our neighbors and random passers-by don't need to be let in on the secret. He agreed that no one needed to see the tree since it was a work in progress. Well, that lasted all of eight hours. That evening, while driving through the neighborhood, we passed a house with lights aglow. Josh literally slammed on the brakes and threw the van in reverse to make sure his eyes were not deceiving him. "Aha! We're not the only ones! I'm opening the blinds!!"

Josh allowed us to take a break on Sunday to enjoy the unseasonably warm and un-Christmasy weather. We hit up a couple vineyards in the area and had our family pictures taken by the amazing Jenne Barron of Bright Eyes Photography. That turned into an adventure all its own since Everett had to be bribed with all the candy and goldfish money can buy and the baby decided to fuss only when the family was posing for a photo. I have no doubt Jenne was able to capture some amazing shots (although we made her work for it!) which will result in another goofy Christmas card for all to see (pics to follow once we've all been properly edited and photoshopped to look like presentable human beings.)

So, as of now, we have two fully decorated trees (although, due to our "staging area" I have kept the blinds drawn in our dining room so as to not have Child Protective Services called on the Christmas mess that is living on the floor,) our stockings are hung with care, our bannister is properly garland strewn, and we have a total of about 10 strands of lights around the house.  I'd say we're well on our way...

And away we go!!!

And before you know it, it's that time of year again! That's right folks...Halloween is over and it officially begins Christmas season. Actually, if you've been watching any television or shopping in any stores, you'd realize that the season began about a week before Halloween, so really, we're a bit behind. Josh jokingly said Wednesday night that we'd get decorating this weekend, but I think we both knew that it was no joke. Yesterday the spiderwebs came off the house and the skeletons were put back in the closet this morning. Boxes are being resurrected as we speak and it's beginning to look a lot like...well...almost Christmas (seeing as it's a beautiful sunny day.)

I should mention that I realized that this year would be even bigger back in September. Josh came home with a car full of pumpkins and bales of hay for our front porch. He stocked up on new bright orange Halloween lights and started sending me emails at work of how his "ideal" front porch would look. I could only assume that if he was this excited for Halloween, Christmas was going to blow up. So, this year we're upping the ante. We've got more stressful jobs, a third child, someone is turning 30 and I've decided to fully embrace Josh's obsession of the Yuletide! That's right, look out Mrs Clause...the Shepherds are ready for the holiday season!! Ethan even got in the mood this morning by "cleaning up" some of his toys (placing them six inches closer to the cabinet they are stored in) and telling Josh "Let's get Christmas started!!"

I leave you with a  couple of pictures. The first of our "Halloween porch" (which hasn't been entirely dismantled since I don't want the neighbors to know just how nuts we are about Christmas.) I would like to mention that multiple neighbors complimented our pumpkin carving and one tween even came back with his iPhone to take a picture of our Avengers pumpkin (I was quite the hit with the male 12-15 population!)

The second pic is of our newest addition. No, not Eben, but his stocking! I decided long ago that each of my children would have a completely different stocking for the mantle and here's his...

Welcome to your first Crazy Christmas Eben!!

(You can see how excited he is at this very moment.)