Putting up the tree & Helena's Christmas parade

We still put up a live tree at our house, which I love! I really wanted to take Cooper to a tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree (because that is what my family always did), but there weren't any tree farms near by. One more reason to love Tuscaloosa...there was a tree farm about 15 minutes from our house growing up. So, we settled for The Home Depot. It was freezing, but Wes did a fantastic job of picking out our tree...it was the first one he picked up! Here is the bare tree before any decorations. Plus a shadow on the right hand corner of the picture...this has happened to me a lot lately and I can't figure out why??

And here is the tree after...

And, check out the cute pjs that Addy gave Cooper for Christmas! We got a lime green monogram on the shirt and are planning on wearing them Christmas morning! Somewhat surprisingly, Cooper has done great with the tree and presents this year. From time to time, she will walk over to the tree and point out the ornaments. She wants you to tell her what they are. She also points at the gifts and says, "Cooper presents". We point to all the gifts and tell her who they are going to.

We also went to the Helena Christmas parade this year. Wes and I were joking before the parade that it would probably be all of 2 cars, but it ended up being HUGE!! We drove to the top of the neighborhood and walked down the trail, passed the elementary school and down to the street to see the parade.

There were bands and dance teams and twirlers and Christmas music and everyone was throwing candy! We stayed for about an hour, but it was way past Cooper's nap time, so we ended up leaving before the parade was even over!

 

We found the May's, our across the street neighbors, a few minutes before we decided to leave. They were doing the same thing we were...going home to take a nap! Cooper LOVES Kate and was so excited to see her. They held hands all the way home!