Before or After?

I have heard it questioned several times this past week whether it is better to decorate for Christmas before or after Thanksgiving. Ummmmmmmmmmmmm I'm thinking that perhaps I should have decorated after! As tonight's picture shows our tree came crashing down this morning before we had our family Thanksgiving. Elijah was looking at an ornament on the back of the tree and several others were on the floor in front of the tree playing slap jack when the tree tumbled over. I was in the family room asking Nathan and Wade to look at the tree sometime today as it seemed to be leaning and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to tumble over when we heard the crash! The main thing is that no children were hurt since they were so close. And, Elijah was looking at an ornament at the time of the crash, but Nathan and Wade discovered that the tree hadn't been put in the stand correctly so the cause of the fall lies with Woody and me...not Elijah! What a mess...but no where near as many ornaments were broken as I expected and not as many came off as I expected. I'm just untangling and making them hang straight once again. There are probably a hundred or more that need to be put back on the tree...that will happen another day! We had a great family day...all fourteen of us. Here is a funny...Woody came in when we were getting all the food lined up and ready so we could fill our plates...he had just been filling the water glasses. He said that I hadn't set enough places that we needed sixteen places...four Proctor's, eight neighbor Dorrell's, and four of us...oops looks like he counted Melany and Nathan in our family and in their own! Before the Proctor's arrived Graham came over and helped me peel potatoes and set the tables...a great help. We asked Elijah to come over and help Goosey (Woody) put the leaves in the kitchen table. After we ate, all the adults pitched in to clean up the kitchen mess. Talk about a LOT of dishes. Woody, Kathy, and Nathan took turns washing the dishes, Wade and I put food away, I put dishes away, Melany took all the meat off the turkey carcass,and I started the carcass simmering to make turkey broth for turkey soup. Wade, Melany, Erin and Alex decided not to stay for turkey leftovers. But the two Dorrell families spread out the food again and we enjoyed leftovers. I won't say that there weren't any electronic games/phones, etc. out and being used...but it was nice to see the children running around outside playing for part of the time (a beautiful day!) and they also played card and board games. Woody and I looked through Melany's Master of Art book that she has put together about her art show (her thesis). We both proofed it for her. Our family members aren't huge football fans, but towards the end of the day a football game was turned on but without the sound. Well, all is quiet here now. And, now I need to go down and finish taking bones, etc. out of the turkey broth...oh, boy! I would rather crash...but will be glad I did when we have turkey soup!