Decorating the yard

Yesterday was the perfect afternoon for decorating the yard for Christmas, since today the weather turned cold and yucky outside. Pop gave Kate a big inflatable helicopter/sleigh for the yard this year, and I had purchased a Mickey Mouse inflatable after Christmas last year, so she was all set! Nick went up on the roof to put the white lights on the house, which was a lot easier to do with the 12' ladder I took off the curb a couple of months ago (thanks to the lazy neighbors who apparently didn't want to move it).

Our trees finally started dropping their leaves, and as I type this they're almost completely bare. It didn't take them long to make a mess in my yard, so after we got our inflatables set and the lights in the bushes, I grabbed the rake and Kate helped me bag up 3 bags of leaves for trash day today. Of course, in between raking and bagging she had to run and jump in the leaf piles.

Kate could hardly wait for the sun to go down so she could see how the lights look and we could take some pictures.