Well, I can't believe it is Christmastime again. Time, could you please just slow down a little bit? I have lots to accomplish and you are making it very difficult to do so!
I have so much planned for Christmas this year. I love December. I love making this time of year special for my family. I am blessed to have a husband who loves Christmas (probably even more than I do) and we have fun celebrating traditions brought in from our families growing up as well as introducing new traditions for our own children to pass on one day.
The day after Thanksgiving is when we set up our tree. I believe it is good to keep the holidays separate. Keeping Christmas stuff postponed until after that turkey is consumed helps the kids to appreciate Thanksgiving which seems to becoming nearly an afterthought in this day and age (wow... saying that makes me feel incredibly old LOL).
This year I really wanted to decorate our white tree with simple, colorful, shiny things. Growing up, I always wanted to have a white tree with colorful ball ornaments. We always had a tree full of keepsake ornaments and I loved it, treasured the memories attached to those ornaments, but just wanted to experience a fun but simple tree just once. So, this year I did just that. I bought a bunch of pretty ornaments on clearance at Target last year. I have been admiring them in our garage all year (seriously) and thinking of how lovely they will look on our tree. And, I will say, I do think our tree looks pretty and cute and fun BUT it's not the same.
We didn't pull out each ornament and hear "that's mine!" I didn't look at each one fondly, remembering my childhood, recalling my children as little toddlers, clumsily hanging each one with chubby fingers. So, it has been nice for this year, and I might hang on to these ornaments and maybe one day we'll have a family room AND a living room and we can do a tree in each room. I don't know. We'll see. All I know is that I miss my eclectic, cluttered tree.
So I was a little excited to see that the first activity in our family advent devotional was to make a small heirloom tree. The directions were to use an evergreen branch and decorate it only using ornaments that were handmade by the children, ornaments that have been passed down, and ornaments that held special meaning. So I went out, cut a branch off of our very prickly tree (um, ouch much?!), and stuck it in some water. Then the girls and I picked through our ornament box and chose the most special ornaments and all the handmade ornaments and hung them on our heirloom tree. It was nice to look through that box again and it helped me remember how many special memories are there. Thank you, Mom and Dad, and Grandmere, for all of the beautiful memories in that box. Without you we wouldn't have them.
Our little heirloom tree. Right next to our photo wall. How perfect :)
And now I'm crying. Just a little. :) Alrighty, I have so much to do today! Let me show you what I'm working on for my latest customer (please ignore the terrible Blogger jaggy quality):
Like what you see? Check out my Etsy shop and purchase your own custom silhouette just in time for Christmas gifting! CLICKY HERE -----> http://www.etsy.com/shop/ashtinafayelou
I have so many activities planned for December. I am excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus with my family! Please come back and see what we're up to. And leave me a comment telling me about your favorite Christmas traditions.
I love your new tree! I had a shiny tree growing up, We had shiny garland, shiny tinsel and shiny balls. After getting married, we started stringing popcorn and cranberries together and using it as garland. We sliced apples and oranges, let them dry a few days and hung them with ribbons on the tree. The oranges made a pretty glow and smelled fresh too. Our heirloom ornaments were used too. This year we went back to a little shininess. Our heirloom ornaments are on a miniature tree in their school room. We enjoy both. Eggnog and chocolate covered cherries accompany tree decorating in our home...whether we like it or not, we have to try a little. :D Thanks for sharing your tradition. You have a fun personality and a sweet heart. I am enjoying getting to know you. <3
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