"I Love the Christmas Tree!"

As you can see, we set our tree up a little early this year! Oh well, the Christmas season can start a little early in the Boardman house!

Bauer had such a blast helping us out this year. He actually (for the first time) made our job easier! He helped separate all the branches of our fake tree by color, then brought them over to us while we were putting them in the base. He also got in there and helped with a bunch of the branches, too! He could hardly contain himself and just kept running around yelling, "Christmas, Christmas, the Christmas tree!"

But, the fun really began when we pulled the ornaments out and started decorating. Our poor tree is riddled with tons of Star Trek (and a couple Star Wars) ornaments that plug into the lights so they light up and, yes, talk when you plug the lights in. There are also a few that don't plug in and are just there for pure visual enjoyment.

As I was pulling them out of the boxes Bauer would grab them and add them to his collection that he was playing with on the coffee table. Matt almost had a heart attack because he's had some of these since before his mission! But, Bauer was very careful and hasn't broken any ornaments yet this year (knock on wood).

One of his favorites is the light saber battle between Obi Wan and Anakin. There's a button to push and it plays dialog from the movie that just keeps going and going and going!

Bauer and the final product!

Now, here are two of my favorite ornaments!

"Alright Black Bart, now you'll get yours!"

"I can't put my arms down!"

Randy is one of the newest additions to our tree. Thanks, Mom!

And I had to throw this one in the mix. This is Bauer's very first homemade Christmas ornament! We made them today with his preschool class. He was so proud to hang it on the tree and couldn't wait to show it to Daddy when he got home from work!