trimming the tree

we spent thanksgiving weekend up at my parents' house (i will post more about thanksgiving once i get some photos from my mom). our family likes thanksgiving, but once it is over, we waste no time getting on to christmas. on friday, my mom set up her tree and on saturday morning, all of the grandchildren helped her hang the ornaments. it's become a bit of a tradition over the last couple years and to say that the kids look forward to it would be an understatement.

my mom handing out the ornaments to the grandkids

my mom controls ornament distribution and the kids run back and forth between her and the tree, trying to hang as many ornaments as they can.

austin reaching for a higher spot

matthew

 

elizabeth

 elizabeth participated too, but usually, one of the older kids would see her with an ornament and rush over to "help" her. madeleine was her main helper and i'm not sure how many ornaments elizabeth actually got to hang before madeleine got to her.

austin utilizing a stool for even more height

a rare moment where elizabeth is actually holding an ornament on her own

diane has been fighting a cold for a couple weeks now and it finally manifested itself in its full glory this weekend. she had a runny nose and was fussy a lot of the weekend. after a few near-disaster experiences with her and the ornaments, randy parked it on the couch with her and a bottle of juice. 

with five grandchildren decorating the tree, all about the same height,  most of the balls ended up clustered in one area on the tree. they will be redistributed later.

the finished tree

can you tell how tall the kids are?

after the kids decorated the tree, we put them in front of the tree to take a picture. this is always a comical experience as several adults holler and make fools of themselves to try and get the kids to look at the camera at once. 

rachel wasn't thrilled with the whole experience.

another attempt, sans rachel

 

madeleine must have still been in the mood to help elizabeth because she had her arms around her the whole time we were trying to get this picture. elizabeth didn't seem to mind. 

my grandparents were also at my mom's for the weekend and we also wanted to get a picture with them and all of the grandkids. rachel and diane weren't up for it, but we got a few with them and the rest of the great grandchildren.