Haul Out The Holly

Despite warnings to myself last year, we pulled the Christmas tree out the two days after Thanksgiving.  This year it makes more sense, as we will only have a few weeks to enjoy it before we head west for the holidays.  And the kids knew- the minute Thanksgiving was over, they were ready to move onto Christmas.  I told them I needed a chance to digest my turkey before I could decorate for Christmas, but finally- finally!- on Saturday, we pulled everything out.

And, of course, it was magical and fun, because everything about Christmas is magical and fun.  Adam got to hang the star this year (I think I'm going to have to start keeping track of this privilege), and the kids had a great time sorting through the ornaments and listening to the stories that go along with our favorites.

We like to collect ornaments in place of traditional souvenirs to remember our journeys throughout the year.  This year we added a Washington Monument ornament and an ornament for Emma's first Christmas.

We also added a beautiful snowflake I received from a visiting teaching friend, a nativity ornament from my sister's trip to Mexico, and a tiny Christmas tree decorate with jewelry from my Grandma Gardner's jewelry box.  It's always fun to look back on the ornaments we've added in past years, too- whether it's the pizza guy from Chicago or the snowman from one of our first trips to Colorado when we were dating, the seahorse from the aquarium or the tiny Pinocchio from Jason's trip to Italy- each one has a great memory to go with it.

And after the tree was all set up and decorated (with no broken ornaments this year- impressive!) we enjoyed another favorite tradition- drinking hot chocolate and enjoying our hard work by the light of the tree.

And of course someone knocked over their mug 2.5 seconds after we took the picture... I think that may be part of the tradition!  No biggie, though.  That's what the blanket was for.

 

And I finally finished my Christmas tree skirt- started 16 months ago- and was able to put it under the Christmas tree.  It was my first "real" quilting project, and I'll be honest, it might be my last, at least for a while.

Welcome Christmastime again!