Sorry this post is a little late - but it's still the 7th, so it counts!
In our family it's tradition to put up the Christmas Tree on December first. With Josh being so busy, the tree didn't get put up until the 4th, and wasn't decorated until last night - we had to wait until he was home so we could all do it together. But, you do what you gotta do.
(please forgive me - i'm not great shakes at tinsel and beads... )
The kids hung most of the ornaments this year, and they had a blast! It is nice that they're both big enough to hang ornaments by themselves - it went really quickly! There was the obligatory Christmas music on in the background, but it was too late to do what i usually like to do afterwards - sit with some hot chocolate and stare at the tree. Oh, well - lots of time for that still.
When we were first married, we started out with lots of inexpensive glass balls - i love the way they sparkle, but they're not really anything special. Over the years, we have been able to replace most of them with ornaments we've made, or were made for us, special ones that make us think of our own childhood, ones marking special occasions (like our wedding and children's first Christmasses). It's such a fun walk down memory lane every time we decorate the tree.
This one was made by my grandma Blumel. She was very skilled at tatting. They are very coveted items in our family.
Of course, the snowmen we made this year.
Our tree would not be complete without something Scottish.
Josh gave me this in 2005. I love hanging it and thinking about our very first Christmas together.
The boys made these at Show Me! (their play group) this year. The top one is Elijahs (he did it all himself), and the bottom one is Riley's.
The quilted ornament made by my sister Susan. I love it. And it's got tarten on it too!!
These ones are special to me, because i spent a LOT of time hunting for them. And i think they are just beautiful. I first saw them at IGA, and LOVED them, but wasn't ready to spend $15 for four ornaments. After a few years, i finally found an ornament set that was discounted because a few of them - plain old gold ones - were broken. The four baby Jesus ornaments were all in tact, and much cheaper than the ones at IGA!
we have two sets of name ornaments - sleds and snow globes. The boys love finding the ones with their names on them.
Riley's first Christmas ornament
Elijah's first Christmas ornament
They made these at Show Me! last year. They are made from play dough with glitter mixed in. Roll out, cut with cookie cutter, use a straw to punch a hole in the top, then let dry for a few days (flipping every so often).
Two years ago, I made little handprints with the boys, for something to do one day. I just used plain old craft foam, traced and cut out their hands, and adorned with puff paint.
We let the boys take turns putting the star up.
Do you have any fun Christmas Tree traditions?
Happy Decorating!!
1 comments:
We buy a new ornament every year for the tree symbolizing something that happened that year. Those are the first ornaments to go on, and we always do them in order (we're up to 20 now!). We've got ornaments for the births of each of our children, the two homes we've lived in, the year of the crazy Japanese exchange student, the year the Edmonton temple was announced, the year we got totally lost while driving south and ended up in Kananaskis and liked it so much we set up camp without even knowing where we were ;), the year we went to Disneyland, etc.
It's fun to discuss in advance what we've thought was most important that year, and sometimes we'll pick up the ornament months in advance because we recognize a defining event for our family.
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