Is it ever too early to set up a Christmas tree? Is it ever too late to play with baby dolls?

This is me helping get out our Christmas tree . . . in OCTOBER! I know people have already started taking down their Christmas decor, but putting up Christmas decor started early for us. Normally we decorate for Christmas after Thanksgiving. However, this past year's Christmas decorating time frame came with a change.

Why put up a Christmas tree in October? That's a great question. When we met with our case worker in August, she explained that she often feels like Santa Clause. She knows secrets about adoption plans, but has to wait until just the right time to unveil those secrets . . . like Santa Clause at Christmas time. That sparked an idea in our heads. If our case worker is like Santa, let's put up our Christmas tree early. We chose October 24th to set up our Christmas tree because that was the day our portfolios began being distributed. That means that that was the day that our case worker began her role as our "Santa". I know she is not really Santa, but the fun that she has in sharing the news of a great gift makes her feel like she is.

This is Eric finding the cords for the lights. :) Fun job!

Some people might think this is weird, but we don't. We still have two baby dolls and other baby toys left over from when we hosted the girls in our home. We thought it would be fitting to put one of the baby dolls under our Christmas tree, because that will be a very nice present one day. It also served as a prayer reminder.

The tree didn't get decorated until much later - like Thanksgiving break or something - but nonetheless it was up on one of our special mile stone days: the day we became officially paper pregnant!

We considered leaving our Christmas tree up until the completion of our adoption waiting process, but the tree came down on New Year's day. Although the tree went back to the garage storage closet, the baby doll didn't. Where did it go?

The baby doll ended up on the fireplace. As of now, it will remain there as our prayer reminder until a real baby comes to our living room! The center decoration of the mantle says the word faith, so it is fitting to have the baby doll prayer reminder there.

Is it ever too early to set up a Christmas tree? 

Is it ever too late to play with baby dolls? 

We don't think so.