I love decorating for Christmas. Here's the tree that we made for the Festival of Trees this year. When I say "we" I mostly mean my sister Charlotte who plans and buys everything. I did make the blue blanket tree skirt. Charlotte does this every year in honor of our son Jeffrey, to earn money for Primary Children's Hospital. She has decorated and donated trees with her kids' church groups too. Really special. Thanks Charlotte!
We brought out the decorations last week and slowly put them up. Day 1 we assembled the tree and added the lights - which didn't turn on. We played around with bulbs and fuses. No luck. Day 2 we bought new lights and tried again. Success. The ornament in the picture is indeed touching the ground. This year I relinquished all decorating control to the kids. I didn't tell them where to hang things and I didn't move any to better spots. This is a big step for me. I am pretending I don't care that my usual front-and-center ornament is hiding down on the lowest branch where nobody can see it. Or that there are multiple ornaments hanging on the same branch.
There are twelve ornaments in the above picture. I think this was Zachary's stash. Each kid had a favorite spot.
Many ornaments are hanging backwards. This snowman does have a face - on the other side.
The candy canes are my favorite part. Maybe they hung them all low for easy access?
They made the tree look as fabulous as ever. I managed to control myself (rather than the kids) and it was more fun for everyone. The blue blanket is Zach's present he wrapped for me. I had to open it the next day so he could have his toys back.
Jonathan was talking about Santa and I asked Nicole if she knows what Santa is going to bring for her on Christmas. She answered "ummmm, pencils!" We were confused and she eventually pointed out my Santa decoration on the wall. Santa doesn't have toys - he has a pencil! 
It has been fun putting out decorations with Nicole since she doesn't remember much from last year. It is all new and exciting to her. Her favorite so far is the nativity set. She keeps trying to smuggle baby Jesus and the angel down to her room. Eggnog milkshakes were a hit too. Here's the recipe, if you can call it that:One quart prepared eggnog
One quart vanilla ice cream
Blend until smooth.
(I use a hand blender. And we eat with plastic spoons because it's COLD.)
Enjoy! Merry Christmas!
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8 comments:
That is awesome that you do a tree for Festival of Trees. It was a gorgeous tree. And I love how yours was decorated. Congrats on relinquishing control. I did a little bit this year, but I still snuck a few of the candy canes off the one branch and put them in bare spots that Caden couldn't reach. Hey, a mom's gotta have at least a couple she can eat! :) LOL We have that same nativity set too, and Caden has it under the tree where everyone can play with it all the time. It is awesome.
HEHE. I love the pencils. Nicole is cute! The decorations are fun. Ours aren't even little bit balanced either. I was just trying to unwrap the ornaments as fast as I could to keep up with them! So fun!
Hey, I did the same thing. I tried to let Gage do his own thing with decorating the tree. It was definitely more relaxing for me and I am sure more fun for him.
Hm. As I decorated this year, I realized it was probably the last year I'd have the tree stay how I decorate it. Next year, I'll have 2 kids tugging at it.
I cried a little inside.
Maybe I will have a second tree they can decorate.
I admire your ability to let the kids decorate the tree. My solution is to have a boys tree downstairs and a girls tree upstairs. Since I am the only girl in the house the upstairs tree is ALL mine. Mwahahahaha!
I did the same thing this year with the tree. I gave up my control and sat back and watched the kids enjoy decorating. Even if I had put things where I had wanted it wouldn't have really matter because Romney has now rearranged the tree several times every day for the last two weeks. The pictures of your Christmas tree make me smile and think of my backward ornaments and uneven spacing. Rebekah totally loves the baby Jesus (and sheep) from our Little People Nativity set too. So cute. Have a Merry Christmas!
I love reading your blog. You have some of the funnest posts.
I actually enjoyed decorating for Christmas too. I think it was because my kids were old enough to help. Our tree decorations weren't perfect, but the kids had so much fun it seemed to make it look the best it ever has.
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