She was excited to bring the tree home! We have this strange little nook in our living room that's perfect for our tree. The only downside is that we have to move our love seat into the garage. The lack of seating, though, is totally worth it in the end!
Keira marched around the tree with Ryan as he unraveled the string. It magically grew with every step, which fascinated her.
I thought for sure she would have no interest in helping me trim the tree, but as soon as Ryan brought the ornaments down from the attic she got to work! It quickly became a mommy-daughter project!
First came the lights, which she loved! Wow!
She made a really good light supervisor.
Of course, a great boss shows appreciation, so we had to take some time out for hugs just 2 minutes in! I was happy to oblige but we had a long way to go.
Rather than just stringing the lights around the tree in circles, I like to zig zag them from the trunk to the edge of the tree and back to the truck over and over again until I get to the very top. It adds depth to the glow and lights the entire tree rather than just the outside of it. It does take a little longer and it's easy to get carried away. I accidently used all the lights we had, leaving nothing left for our front porch!
Next came the ornaments. I based the theme of our tree on these three signs: Merry Christmas, Let it Snow and Ho Ho Ho. We found them in the dollar section at Target and I fell in love with the mix of red, blue and green. On the plus side, we already had red and blue ornaments, so all we had to buy were green ones, saving us a lot of money!
Christmas exploded in our living room! We've collected a lot of ornaments over the years. Ryan dislikes this part the most, but I assure him there is a method to this chaos.
Keira takes a more active role when it comes to the ornaments. Unpacking things just happens to be her specialty!
You never fully know until you experience it, but Christmas is more magical with children! I had so much fun with her this year, the first of hopefully many to come. I know it will only get better!
So here it is, our tree completely decorated and presents at its feet. It's such a merry little tree! In fact, if Keira were a Christmas tree this is exactly how I would picture her! It just captures her spirit perfectly and the color combo reflects the kid in all of us, but is grown up enough for our adult side as well.
I had pictured putting these signs on our mantle, but decided they were better suited for the tree. Ryan didn't like it at first, but after adding all the other ornaments, they seemed to fit right in.
One of our Christmas traditions is buying an ornament that best represents the year. I really didn't have time to look for one at Hallmark, but I did happen to see this one at Starbucks when I was picking up a cup of coffee.
It came with a gold pen so that you could personalize it and after much reflection we settled on this:
"The only thing better than coffee are family hugs."
Keira has definitely become a hugger! She'll often hug you out of the blue and is especially fond of family hugs like this. As soon as she hears us say, "Family hug!" she smiles and grabs us both by the shoulders. It's certainly something we want to remember about 2013!
Now for the presents! I didn't purposely match the wrapping paper to the tree, but we just happened to have a couple rolls left over from last year that did. Sweet - another dollar saved!
I also had some blue ornaments that didn't make it to the tree so I used them to adorn a few of our gifts. I just love the way a simple ornament embellishes a present and instead of ribbon I used fluffy green yarn in its place.
Keira and the other kids got special Sesame Street paper that I found at Big Lots!
This year, we added a countdown to our Christmas decor, which will be even more important next year when Keira fully gets it. I found this in the dollar section of Target too. It has a chalkboard like surface. I just need to remember to keep updating it, something I have not been very good at so far.
Our mantle gets to dress up for Christmas too...
and we hung stockings in our foyer, one for each of us.
Lastly, my only art & craft project this season was this wreath. I was inspired by a friend of mine who makes these as a hobby. See her tutorial here. Notice the yarn? It's the same yarn that I ended up using around the presents. To be honest, I didn't want to go back to the store to buy more ribbon, so I went with the yarn. I like to think I was being more resourceful than lazy!
I hung it over the entrance to the kitchen.
Our decorations this year ended up being a lot of old mixed in with a little bit of new. It all came together though... our little Christmas miracle before Christmas!
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