We were a little late in getting our Christmas decor up this year, but it's been up for a few weeks now and I just love to come home to our cozy house with all the pretty decorations! I've been carrying on a family tradition with Caroline when it comes to decorating for Christmas. We get everything out, make hot cocoa or apple cider, put on the Christmas tunes and go to town. I love going through this ritual with her, it brings back such great memories of doing this with my family when I was little. I hope it's a tradition that she'll cherish too and carry on with once she's grown up with her own family. Another tradition we have is going to buy a new ornament each year. We each pick out a new ornament for the tree!
From top left: Caroline's new ornament front & back, My ornament that I got from a childhood friend when we were in the 2nd grade, my family ornament when I was a kid, Caroline's ornament that was made from a painting she did, my new ornament, and our 2010 family ornament! Center: One of my all-time favorites...it's just so darn cute!
Our tree doesn't have any specific theme, or color pattern, it's just a mish mash of everything! I have ornaments that were given to me when I was a little girl, some of my mom's, new ones, ones Caroline has made over the years and ones that have been given to our family. Most years I make new ornaments. It's just a collection of memories and I love that about our tree.
This year when we started getting ready to figure out what kind of ornaments to make, I was stumped. I happened to be reading a friends blog {Nicole} and she had the best idea for ornaments, so I copied them! LOL! Nicole is reinventing her family's Christmas this year and it has really inspired me. In fact, I'm really thinking about doing this next year. You should stop by her blog and read her series called, "The 12 Days of a Simple Christmas". I would post the links, but there are lots {duh, she's doing 12 of them}so I just linked to her 1st post of the series. Seriously, you have to stop by!
Back to making ornaments....she had this "recipe" for crystal ornaments using basic household things. I did have to go to the store to buy Borax, but the rest was easy peasy. I have to say this was one of my favorite ornament projects. They were fun to make, fun to watch, and we learned a little in the process! Basically, it's a simple science project that turns into sparkly crystals to hang on your tree! And watching Caroline's face as we checked on them and she saw the crystals forming was such a blast, she was full of awe and even had to take one to her teacher and tell her how we made them!
And here are a few of our decorations! We don't have a fireplace and mantle, but we do have an old wood burning stove and rock wall which makes everything all cozy! I especially love the feel of it all decorated with our stockings and garland. Speaking of stockings, we have 9 hanging! We have our 3 and then we have 6 for our fur babies. Squirt, Shimmer, Bobby {the lone cat}, Betsy, Heidi & Daisy Mae! That's a lot of stockings! And each of them get a treat in their stockings to enjoy while we open our presents on Christmas morning.
I'll leave with a funny Caroline said the other day while watching TV with Tab when a Victoria's Secret commercial came on and Tab tried to cover her eyes
3 comments:
I love all your decorations! Everything is pretty! I am going to have to go to that link for the ornaments, my daughter is a science buff and know she would love making those!
I think the most special trees are those with family ornaments! That's how ours is.
I've wanted to try Nicoles recipe, looks like so much fun!
Merry Christmas!
Thank you for the sweet shout out! Making our ornaments was lots of fun and I think our tree turned out great! I won't lie and say it wasn't a lot of work .. but well worth it.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
Nicole
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