Tonight for Family Home Evening me and the kids decorated our Christmas Tree. We actually put it up over the weekend and got the lights strung, but the ornament placing was tonight since we didn't have all the kids home over the weekend.
Our tree has become a "memory" tree, decorated with ornaments that each child has collected over the years. We've quit having an upstairs and a downstairs tree because I've learned to simplify my life and don't get stressed out about doing it up BIG anymore. The formal foo foo tree is long gone, and we only do the "memory" tree now. We have a family tradition each year of going to a fun Christmas store that has literally hundreds, if not thousands of ornaments. The kids each pick out an ornament that kind of represents them for that year.
Tonight we had so much fun decorating the tree while recalling the reasons why certain ornaments were bought and sharing the memories of that ornament/year. Our tree is getting a little crowded, especially this year since we went with a smaller, skinnier tree this time. Mark actually got it in Oregon with my brother-in-law Steve who was up there getting Christmas trees to bring back to sale. They picked out the best shaped tree we've ever had and it smells incredible!
When the tree is all decorated I love to turn out all the lights and sit and relax in the living room and watch the lights sparkle. We didn't realize that we bought twinkling lights this year but no big deal, they don't blink obnoxiously, just very subtly and it actually looks kind of neat. A few years ago I would of freaked out with blinking lights and ordered them off the tree and fixed immediately!! Mark probably would have had to make another trip to the store to replace them while I waited anxiously at home to finish decorating. Ahhh, isn't life great anymore?!?! I don't think I even re-arranged a single ornament tonight that was placed in a funky spot by one of the kids.
Christmas really is a wonderful time of year and I'm finally getting in the mood of the whole season. I forgot just how much I love to relax on the couch while listening to Christmas music, having all the lights turned off with just the glow of the Christmas tree lights. I look forward to the next few weeks and all the festiveness everywhere.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!
Colton - 15
4 comments:
Nice Tree. I love ornaments!! We have collected at least one every year for our tree.
I am happy to see that you are finally in the Christmas mood! Taylir's enthusiasm must be contagious :)
that's such a good idea to let each child pick their own ornaments. I've always bought my kids one (and still do). I think it would be fun to make a day of it and go together. I'm finally catching up on reading my blogs.
I keep going back and forth about how to decorate my tree. I like the formal look, but I like the meaning of homemade ornaments, so I don't know which way to go. I love your ornament tradition!
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