Meet my nemesis, my 12′ Christmas tree…

I have to be honest and tell you that decorating this puppy is not my very favorite thing to do.  I’ve seen many fancy Christmas trees on Pinterest and YouTube and I’m sure if I set my mind to it, that I could certainly create an over the top, very elaborate tree. I have decided against doing that though because this tree, when finished, exhibits many cherished memories.  A lot of the ornaments are ones that my kids made when they were little, there are some that were given to me as gifts, some to remember our past pets, some to commemorate trips, alma maters, well I could add to this list all day long.  Bottom line, I’ve chosen to keep this tree more simple and let it speak for itself instead of making some grand design and having all of our cherished ornaments get lost in the “foo-foo”.

We purchased this “slim” tree when we moved into this home, I wanted it to make a statement, but, I didn’t want it to encompass the entire room.  It is quite tall at 12′ and it definitely requires a ladder when decorating.  I also chose to put colored lights on this tree because the family likes the colored lights and I love how it looks when it is complete…the colored lights set it apart from everything else in the room.

We started putting it up on Thanksgiving evening, a tradition that was started when our girls were born.  They were both here to help, here is our youngest up on a ladder hanging ornaments…

Here is her older sister, she was sitting on the floor handing her the ornaments…They make quite a good team! ❤

My hubby had already fluffed the tree, put the lights on it, and wrapped those wooden beads around the it.  I had made that bow topper earlier in the day and tied it on…The tree was a work in progress…This is how it looked on Thanksgiving evening…

Very pretty, but, *something* was bothering me, there weren’t enough lights on it for one thing (hubby had already put 500 in place). And it didn’t have enough ornaments and that stinkin bow was driving me crazy…from a distance, it looked like a big dark blob was on the tree.  Why oh why did I make that bow out of that plaid ribbon (as opposed to a sheer deco mesh ribbon that the lights would shine through)? Well, because I’m anal retentive and that bow *had* to be made out of the same ribbon that I had made for the bannister bows (not to mention the bows that I’d added to every other grouping in this part of the house).

So yesterday, I went about solving this little “tree needs help” problem.  I took a trip to Target and I purchased 300 more lights, and then I went down into my ‘store’ <~~~ basement, and I rummaged around and found about 30 more ornaments.  I went and gathered the step ladder out of the garage–and I tried not to knock anything down as I was muscling that stupid thing to the tree…sheesh, that thing was awkward and a bit heavy. 😉

This is what I came up with by yesterday evening…

Here is a before (left picture) and after..

I intertwined lights through the bow hoping that that would help it stand out and not be so much of a blob…and it worked! YaY!!

Subtle differences, but those simple additions made a world of difference to me. I was finally happy with the tree.  Here are some more pictures of the ornaments…

And one more shot of a very special ornament that we purchased this year…to remember those lost in France…

I took some time yesterday evening to walk around this section of the house and take pictures from different angles, I’m quite happy with how everything turned out.  All of the Christmas decor flows together quite nicely…

I fixed that big “lit-less” ^^^ gap at the top of the tree this morning after I downloaded these pictures onto my computer…haha…

I am definitely breathing a bit easier now that I know that all of my decorating is finished.  I’ve also been doing a bit (meaning a good bit) of shopping, so my ***least*** favorite task is ahead of me and that is wrapping gifts.  Yes, I love to create decor, I do not like to wrap presents…bah hum-bug to me eh?! 😉

I will close this blog post by quoting what I feel *is* the reason for this most glorious of Seasons…

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” …Isaiah 6:9

God Bless you all!

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn