First day of Advent

Sunday
We marked the first day of Advent, aside from worshipping at church as usual, by putting up our tree (or strictly speaking one of our trees) and some more of the outside lights. We actually put up two trees - this artificial one in the living room, and then we always get a real one for the family room. We always had a real one as I was growing up, and I love the smell, and going out to get one, etc, but when we decided to start having one in both rooms, we invested in the artificial one. Laura really wanted to get to help decorate one tree before she went back to college, so the three kids assembled it yesterday and she and I decorated it late this afternoon. This one I always do in white and gold, and has a number of musical ornaments, since this is also our music room, with our grand piano. The family room tree has ornaments we have collected over the years as well as some home-made ones. It was a good day to be inside, as it was cold and wet.