Christmas, is that you?

I would have to say that this has been the best Christmas yet. Alex and I are usually pretty bad about getting Christmas cards and presents out on time. I am impressed with us (okay, mainly me) with actually getting them out to our friends and family on time. We've done well with staying within our budget for family members and each other.

Stocking stuffers always seemed to be an issue for me, because what do I buy besides candy? I borrowed another blogger and friends tradition, from her blog at Our Homegrown Spud. They have seven categories from which the other person buys within. I like it because you actually get the person stuff they can use, and it's not candy, well I love the candy, but six bags of candy gets a little tummy achey. Now I can say that Alex's stocking is stuffed with stuff he will enjoy!

Oooh, but the presents! I'm definitely a present gal. I love to open presents, they don't need to be expensive ones, they just need to be wrapped. Alex and I have ours sitting so neatly underneath the tree and I truly enjoy the feeling just looking at our tree and seeing the presents underneath. Alex won't let me touch them, but only if he knew... okay, not really, as much as I say I would want to know, I really wouldn't because I love surprises!

I'm getting even more excited with Christmas at the end of the week!


Happy Holidays Everyone!

O Tannenbaum

[The final product]

I had a blast putting up our Christmas tree last weekend, and Alex was a big help! Over the last four weeks I have been making trips to Hobby Lobby to gather supplies. Like I mentioned before, I watched a YouTube video that showed me how to decorate a Christmas tree, and make it look great, which it didn't turn out to shabby looking, and Alex was thoroughly impressed. 

We started off by touching every single limb on that fake tree. 

Then we unraveled a grapevine wreath, like the one above, around the tree.

I started the initial unraveling outside because it was flaking even transporting around the house. We started at the top of the tree and just wrapped it around and then really pulled it apart. We haphazardly placed it in and around the branches. 

I bought some silver metallic ribbon that is fairly flexible with wire edging, and I was conscious to place it up and down branches as we spiraled down the tree. I didn't want the ribbon to look as if it was just set on the outside of the tree. 

I couldn't find exactly what the decorator used in the YouTube video, but I did find silver floral spray, and used the through out the tree, and it did the same thing. Alex is sporting some behind his ear - he's so bad ass! 

After getting the vine, ribbon, and spray all settled, I started by putting the large ornaments on the bottom branches and work my way up with smaller ones. I tried to get the ornament to hang from the branches, instead of sitting on them. Then I worked in some smaller ornaments into the middle of the tree. There was a lot of maneuvering in between the vine and ribbon to find space and the right look.  

The Final Product

I had so much fun decorating the tree, and definitely will look forward to doing it again next year. It will be sad to take it down; I just won't think about that part. 

[When it came time to put the ornaments on, Alex had enough creativity, so I put him on camera duty.]

 [I love how the vine and ribbon play together.]

When we started decorating, I definitely thought there wasn't a theme to this tree. I was wrong, we like the feel for dark colors, like green, red, silver, gold, and a little of purple. 

I hope everyone enjoys putting up there tree as much as we did! 

Oh, Christmas Decorations

It's been a couple of years since I put up Christmas decorations, and I wanted to see what I had for decorations and tree ornaments. So I dragged everything out and took a look, while putting tree ornaments in an ornament box, that I had bought from Target. 

 The few, but a start, of Christmas decorations.

I'm so excited! 

The organization of the wonderful ornament box, with Norman being a good sport. 

I thought these bird ornaments were neat, and Alex picked out two of them. 

All organized and ready for putting up the tree this weekend!