Christmas is always my favorite time of year! Everyone has so much fun putting up decorations, baking cookies, singing carols and the absolute BEST part, the Christmas Tree. While I love unpacking all of my sparkly decorations and placing them around the house nothing quite says Christmas quite like a twinkling, sparkling tree.
We finally got ours up last weekend… after days of starting and then having to stop, starting and then having to stop! It was enough to drive anyone mad! (Let’s be honest… it was enough to drive me mad, the tree could have sat in a box on the floor for a month before the hubby even noticed!)
So Saturday we grabbed an energy drink (for the hubby) and a new Christmas CD (for me) and partied until the cows came home. We stayed up until close to four in the morning putting up the tree and making every surface sparkle!
I LOVE IT!
The last few nights after work we’ve simply sat on the couch in the dark letting the lights dance and enjoying the silence. It’s so magical. The lights transport me back to a simpler time when sleighs were flown by reindeer and Santa came down a chimney. (I still believe fyi, I don’t know what y’all are talking about but I’m expecting several presents from the big guy under my tree Christmas morning. That makes him real enough for me!)
Growing up Christmas was always a HUGE affair, mom had decorations on every surface… and at least 7 or 8 trees. Little trees, medium trees and of course the family tree. In college the “family tree” was 12 feet tall and big enough to crush a grown girl (yes, I speak from experience). From the time I was little mom helped my brother and I to set up our very own four foot high trees in our bedrooms. We received ornaments every year: from mom, from each other, from dad, even from the dog. Ornaments were big in our house and by the time I was in high school I had enough ornaments to fill a six foot tree. I had graduated to the big leagues.
While I love “decorator” trees with round shiny ornaments and ribbon (like our little red and green tree, my nod to my husbands cry for a touch of traditional color) my favorite ornaments are the sentimental ones. Such as the blown glass ornaments my mom picked out for me in Europe. The summer after high school we hit the big three: London, Paris and Rome. I was to young to think about souvenirs like Christmas ornaments… hello I was in EUROPE! However, Mom made the time to pick out a beautiful memory just for me. Now every year when I hang the Eiffel Tower, Trevi Fountain and London Bridge on my tree I can think of our trip.
Now this might be my newest favorite. Every Christmas (for as long as I can remember) I received a daughter ornament from Mom and Dad, plus a sister ornament from my little brother. When we got married my hubby’s momma gave him a little box filled with ornaments from his childhood. Most of the ornaments are rugged “manly” ornaments: bear, moose, animals of the wild. (Really is there such thing as a manly ornament?) Nestled in the box was a little mouse in a red slipper from 1991, that year’s “son” ornament. In my box was the corresponding “daughter” ornament: a little mouse in a pink slipper. Now my brother has that same exact little red mouse but since our ornaments were on different trees it wasn’t until I hung my hubby’s mouse next to mine that I realized. My mouse has a right slipper… his has a left. We make a perfect pair. I thought that was so symbolic in a sappy, Christmas ornament kind of way.
I love our sentimental tree.
Given my mother’s Christmas decorating habits you didn’t think you were getting out of here with just one tree did you? We have two more in our little home but they’re baby trees. A four footer and a little three footer. The four footer is driving me absolutely bonkers still in the works, so I’ll leave you with my hubby’s sweet little red and green beauty.
What’s your favorite kind of tree? A “decorator” tree with beautiful decorations all picked out around a central theme? Or a sentimental tree filled with ornaments collected over a lifetime?
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to pick between the two!
Check back later this week for the full monty… the complete 2014 Christmas Tour.
Linking up with: Tatertots & Jello
