outside, decorating

We started decorating the outside of the house today. We took down all the Christmas decorations down from the attic and started on the outside only! I did put up a couple of nativity sets and the Advent wreath. But onto the decorating...
We got a pole for decorating last year after the end of the year on clearance. Eric loves it, makes short work of decorating when you learn how to use it and not hit people with it, and you aren't 2 or 4.

Nate wanted to help us pull stuff down from the attic. He is a very good climber, makes Eric nervous, but he didn't fall once!

Nate "helping".

Nate's helping was hilarious, at one point he put his hands over Eric's eyes...I sadly missed that shot because I was laughing too hard.

We did not finish the outside decorating today, hopefully tomorrow. Eric still feels like we need "inflatables" in the yard, I disagree. We appear to have a big hole in one of the trees where one of the strands of lights worked until we hung it 20ft up in the air. We are competing in a neighborhood decorating contest, our neighbors on the corner have their lights set to go on/off with Christmas music. Some of it flashes very quickly, but it is our most fierce competition, that we have seen so far!