Before my husband and I had kids, Christmas at our house looked extremely different. I’m not sure if we were lacking in holiday spirit, or if we just felt lazy during the cold winter months, but we never made much of an effort to decorate—some years we didn’t even put up a Christmas tree. (Wow, how things have changed!)

Once our daughter came into the picture, we knew that, as a family, we needed to make a change. We wanted our kids to experience all of the holiday magic that we experienced during our childhood. Cue the Christmas spirit: It started off slow, with just a tree, and then later some simple lights outside. Finally, this year we hung our first holiday wreath—my daughter, Ella, and my son, Connor, were super excited!

Putting up our Christmas tree together has become a family tradition. While I would like to say the entire experience is always filled with love, peace and joy… it isn’t. There is, as with any kid-filled experience, much chaos. This year, my husband spent a good deal of time cleaning up broken ornaments, while I was begging our 2-year-old to stop taking the ornaments off the tree. And in the midst of the madness, Ella went a bit crazy with the tinsel, putting way too much on one side of the tree. But even with all of the disorder, I have to admit that Christmas with these kids is a million times better than it was without them. And it makes me look forward to future Christmas chaos, and spreading even more cheer with my family.