Deck the Halls (part 1)

This afternoon I began the task of digging out all the Christmas decorations from the guest bedroom closet and assembling the Christmas tree. Each year as I pull out box after box, I ask myself, "where did all this stuff come from and why do I put this much stuff out every year???" But, I love Christmas and I love having all the decorations up. It's the getting them up and taking them down I could do without! I usually do most of the decorating myself. Heather has always lost interest very quickly so I usually pull out her special ornaments and let her hang those, and do the same for Marty's ornaments and hang the rest myself. They seem to like it that way. They enjoy hanging the Christmas lights together outside.

This year we aren't even planning to be here for Christmas, but I'm decorating anyway. I enjoy the house decorated for Christmas and I love driving down the driveway after work and seeing the outside all lit up too. A few years ago Marty set everything on a timer so it would all be on when I arrived home.

I'm very sentimental and have a few ornaments that to me are treasures. My oldest ornament on the tree is one I can remember hanging every year since I was a little girl. It's one my Nana made me and most of the glitter has since fallen off and the decoupaged pictures can hardly be seen any more. But I can't bear to throw it away.

There is a whole set of wooden ornaments painted to look like baby toys. Those ornaments are the ones I gave Marty as a gift the Christmas we found out I was pregnant with Heather. We still hang them every year.

Most of Heather's ornaments are ballerinas, dancers, or ballet shoe ornaments. I still buy her a new ballerina ornament every year, even though she isn't in ballet anymore.

A large portion of my ornaments are Santa Clause ornaments. I tend to buy myself a new Santa face for the tree each year. I also have a collection of Santa figurines, most of which have been gifts. The first picture above is the newest Santa ornament I recently purchased.

Although I have not had time to make gifts the past couple of years, that is normally what I do. A few years ago I purchased several unpainted wooden sleds from the Dollar Tree and painted them and gave them as gifts. Here is one I kept.

Call me crazy, but last year I decorated a second tree in the dining room and will do the same this year. My kitchen and dining room are decorated with apples and gingerbread men and I now have enough gingerbread and apple ornaments to decorate a tree just with them. So, that's what I did, and plan to do again. It's a smaller tree and not as full so won't take as long to do. Tonight I'm too tired to finish the decorating, so it will wait until tomorrow evening. I'm anxious for Marty and Heather to get to work on the outside lights too! Marty has become a pretty good sport about all the Christmas decorations, as long as I wait until after Thanksgiving to put anything out. I agree!

Here is the finished tree, all lit up tonight.

To be continued...