Sunday evening Nana brought us dinner and we had plans to go to the Portland International Raceway to see Christmas lights. However, we were just too exhausted and had been out to many different places already over the weekend including family portraits, Christmas Tree hunting and church. We decided to take it easy at home and decorate our Christmas tree…something Elias and Simon were very much looking forward to.
We turned on the Manheim Steamroller Christmas Extraordinaire. ( A Bartle family tradition) and had a little dance party to the obnoxious synthesizer while getting in the Christmas spirit. Caleb was a little grumpy so Nana took him in the other room while we helped the boys hang ornaments.
There were only two ornament casualties this year which is great if you consider a five and two year old were handling glass ornaments. Our finished tree looks great and the boys are super proud. When we had hung every ornament, the boys wanted more and more. When I told them that was all we had Elias said, “but it’s so fun!”
Afterward, we took a picture of the four of us in front of the tree.
It’s funny how two weeks ago this would have been a family portrait. Now it’s a good picture, but it just feels incomplete without Caleb. Things change fast!