Oh Christmas Tree

For the past 2 years I have decorated 2 Christmas trees in our home. We have a tall artificial tree we place in front of the living room windows each year with all of our special ornaments on it and 2 years ago we purchased a tall skinny rustic looking tree to put in the dining room. This year after watching a Christmas movie together as a family, all 3 of us realized it had been 15 years since we put up a "real" tree and that we had never once all 3 gone out to choose and cut our tree together. So, we decided then and there to do that for this Christmas.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we all got up and headed off to Tannenbaum Farms to choose a tree for the house, and also a tree for the church to decorate to display downtown in Central Park.



Here Marty is cutting the tree for our house:




And this is the tree we selected for the church:





After getting them wrapped and secured atop the Suburban we headed home to await decorations.


This is the church's tree decorated in Central Park:




I decided the real tree needed natural looking and homemade ornaments. Great concept, right?! But in reality, it meant a lot of work. Heather and I spent an entire evening making these ornaments. I spent time over the next few days attaching ribons to hang these and attaching ribbons to pine cones for the tree:


Here is the tree in the living room:


And here it is lit up:



I decided I couldn't bear not to have the regular tree up with all our special ornaments so I put it in the corner of the retreat off the master bedroom:



And then we have the tree in the dining room containing all the gingerbread and apple ornaments, among all the Santa Clause figurines:




Stay tuned for further Christmas festivities we've been checking out!

Tour My Christmas Home

I've finally finished with the inside Christmas decorations. Marty is planning to put the lights up outside tomorrow. I didn't put out everything this year, but I did manage to put out most of it. I was tempted to only put up the trees, but decided the Nativities and Santas needed to be set up as well.

Hung on the front door is this wreath I made a few years ago. (There's a funny story of the day I made this wreath and each year I hang it I'm reminded of the attack of the bees attracted to the cinnamon scented pine cones I used. Now I only hang the wreath INSIDE, not outside)

In the living room you'll find many Christmas decorations, including this Nativity displayed on the entertainment center. I used to sell Home Interiors and purchased this set then.







A close up of my candles all decked out with poinsettias.








The lights of the Christmas tree in the living room.







At the end of the entertainment center I always perch this Santa on one of the candle holders and wrap both in more blush poinsettias.









This is an old window my grandpa gave me that I painted a snowman scene on, accompanied by our stockings (I still haven't located Marty's stocking so an extra was put in its place until I figure out where I put it!)








The dining room is where I put my red decorations, including most of my santas. I put another tree in here with all my apples and gingerbread man ornaments. My kitchen and dining room are decorated with apples and gingerbread men year round so there are always plenty of things to put on that tree! The giant santa was a gag gift from my mom a couple of years ago. He fits in quite nicely with all the other santas and red decorations!

The dining room table centerpiece.

Each year BooMama hosts a Christmas tour of homes so we can visit other bloggers' homes all over and see how we all decorate for Christmas and share Christmas traditions, etc. Click the logo below to check out other Christmas homes or to find out how to participate yourself.








Merry Christmas!!!!

I'm Finally Getting it Done.....

I always have my Christmas tree up the day or two after Thanksgiving. Not this year. Marty finally put the tree up for me a couple of weeks ago in an effort to help get me started and we finally put the decorations on it a couple of nights ago. This is very late for me, but there has been one activity after another since Thanksgiving Day and we just haven't taken the time to get the decorating done. I still have lots to do, but here's proof that the tree IS finally up:

We each have certain ornaments that are our special ornaments that no one else can hang. Here's Heather with her stash of special ornaments.





All three of us pitched in and we had the tree decorated in record time.

Heather hangs one of her many ballerinas.

Even Marty didn't wait to hang his ornaments.

Voila! All through! (at least with this tree...)

Deck the Halls...Part 2

I've finished...well mostly. All that's left of decorating is to hang the wreaths and add a little greenery and poinsettias here and there.

Marty and Heather have made so much fun of me for buying this tree. It's tall and scrawny and the branches aren't full at all, but perfect for my country dining room!

More of my santas. The snowman on the wall is one I painted on one of my grandfather's old windows.

The life size santa was a gift from my mom last year. She couldn't wait to see Marty's reaction when she gave me this! When I brought him out of the closet a few nights ago, Missy (our puppy) had a fit! She doesn't like him at all!!!

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...