O, Christmas Tree

I'm so happy- we finally finished getting our Christmas tree up last night! It took us 3 days in a row, but it's finally done. Every year we set it up I consider springing for a bigger, prelit one, but this guy has served us well for about 8 years now and I'm just not ready to get rid of him.

This year I let Pyper pick out which tree skirt she wanted to use, then decorated according to those colors (blue, white and silver). I already had pretty much everything I needed- white lights, silver wired ribbon, a few large white jingle bells, silver ball ornaments, and some silver bells on ribbon. Pyper and I mainly worked on getting those things put on, then Hakan helped us with the rest of the ornaments. Aaron picked up the big blue ones for me, but that was all we ended up having to buy. Sweet!

So, taking a cue from my cousin, Taylor, I'm going to share with you a few of my favorite ornaments that are on our tree this year:

I'm a sucker for photo ornaments. This one is Pyper's from two years ago.

Aaron painted this Santa for our first Christmas together. I don't think he was happy with it, but I really like it and make sure it always goes on the tree.

Yesterday the kids and I sat down with some air drying clay, cookie cutters and beads and went to town making some ornaments. This is the one Pyper was most proud of (that's a tear drop, in case you were wondering).

Hakan painted this snowman during a recent preschool field trip to a local pottery studio. He's very... colorful!

I don't remember when I bought these, but I found them at the dollar store in Rexburg and have loved them ever since. I love that 3-D star shape (our tree topper is the same shape). These are especially cool because you hang them from a branch with the string, then on the bottom is a little hole where you insert a tree light, which makes the whole ornament just glow. Wish I'd bought more than 5, though!
Hakan's first teeny tiny Christmas ornament. That photo is only about an inch square. What a darling little guy!!

I have three of these bell birds- this blue one, a yellow one and a white one. I got them at a craft store in Rexburg and I just think they're super cute.

And last but not least, probably one of the oldest ornaments I have. Growing up, us kids always got a new ornament each Christmas, and Mom was really good about putting our names and year on them to keep track. A few years ago she gave me mine, though some of them I hesitate to put on the tree for fear of something happening to them. I noticed this little wooden painted tuba found its way onto a back branch, so I think it'll be safe. It's from Christmas of 1982, so I would have just turned 2 years old when I got this. New, shiny ornaments are nice and all, but what's Christmas without a little nostalgia?