O tannenbaum

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house. I decided to surprise Paul by putting up the decorations without his knowledge. Tonight he'll come home to the glow of twinkling lights, the smell of cinnamon, and an adoring wife with tuna casserole. In the words of Andrea, "Num num num!" 

I'm quite proud of my tree this year. For our first Christmas I borrowed a little tree and lights from my mom.  We adorned it with mismatched ornaments I had loving made throughout the years.  While sentimental, the tree was a little sad looking.

 

And our "star" was even sadder.

But Paul and I didn't care.  That was our FIRST tree and we loved it.

Last year my sister bought us a tree as an early Christmas gift.  I filled it with my handmade ornaments and embellished it with hand-me-down red beads.  The lights were a string of white, twinkly and cheery, and a string of purple that once framed my mother's birthday coffin.  It was a frumpy tree.

This year I strung up the mismatched lights and sighed.  How could I make this work?  I dug through a box of ribbons and cords my aunt gave me until I found a roll of white wired ribbon.  I tied shimmering bows to the branches.  I decided against my red beads and replaced the garland with a silver cord.  I stood back and admired the way my theme was taking shape.  

While most of my ornaments are red, I searched for all of the silver and purple bobbles and trinkets I could find.  I even found a couple of green that went looked nice scattered about.  I stood back again and felt a sense of pride that I actually transformed those Halloween lights into a sophisticated and festive work of art!  Then Andrea finally noticed the tree so it probably won't last long.

But I tried to fill the bottom of the tree with ornaments that she can play with.

There's just one thing missing. . .  I'll be making that tomorrow.  When that's finished I'll post a picture of the whole tree.