I know others out there can relate: You’re walking along, minding your own business and suddenly KAPOW! Ambushed and tackled to the ground by December. Even though it snuck up on me last year, too, (And last year I swore I’d be better prepared this year!) somehow December continues to ambush me. Every. Year.

I was looking at my work calendar today and suddenly realized that next week is the last full week of school before winter break. Not that I’m complaining about an impending vacation or anything, but WOW. Suddenly Christmas is here. Thankfully my shopping is done and we even managed to get the Christmas tree up this weekend, something I’m proud of considering how busy we’ve been.

This will be the 6th Christmas that Lucas and I have spent together. In the past we’d always had a pretty standard 5′ Christmas tree. This year, though, we inherited my grandparents’ 12′ Christmas tree with plenty of ornaments and decor to accompany it, which is perfect to go in our brand new house. But let’s be honest: while the ceilings in our house are higher than standard ceilings, even they can’t quite accommodate 12′ of tree plus an angel on top. Thankfully the trunk is made up of several pieces that fit together, so we were able to leave out a single 2′ section to make the tree fit in our living room with the crown on the angel’s head just shy of the ceiling. Success! It was an all day affair fluffing and decorating, but totally worth it; not only is it nice to have grandpa’s old Christmas tree stay in the family and begin getting used again, it’s totally gorgeous and HUGE. It’s neat to remember all of the memories of it down at the lake house each year and think about how it’s got a new life being a part of the memories we’re creating for Liam in our house now. Sounds sappy, right? Newsflash: I’m a mom now; EVERYTHING and every moment is sentimental!

“OHMYGOD THE BOY JUST FARTED, QUICK HONEY GRAB THE CAMERA!” Yup, pretty much.

So then of course, what’s an all day event like putting up the Christmas tree without photos? Not an event in the Karpiuk household, that’s for sure! We obviously took a ton of photos, because putting up such a huge tree for our first Christmas in the new house and Liam’s first Christmas was a momentous occasion.

Here are just a few pictures from yesterday; the rest are all up on our Flickr account in the Christmas Tree 2011 set, which will eventually be part of a larger Christmas 2011 collection since you know there’ll be a heck of a lot more photos to come.

Oh, and that photo of Liam looking like he’s about to eat your face off? That’s his new thing: the snort laugh. He wants to join in on our laughter, so he’s developed this hilariously hideous snorting laugh where he crinkles up his face and does a lot of repetitive, quick snorts in a row with his mouth WIDE OPEN. It’s hysterical. I need to get that on video, seriously.

Anyway, I guess all that’s left to do now is to wrap gifts and pick a picture or two for our Christmas cards this year so that they can get mailed. Considering how ambushed I feel by December, at least I’m mostly on top of things, right? Good luck with all of your holiday preparations!