I'm Not Totally Sick Of Christmas. Yet.
It has come to my attention that I never posted photos of my Christmas trees. HOW DID I LET THIS HAPPEN? So much slacking going on over here...
Anyway, this will go down in history as the year that I failed miserably at the outdoor Christmas decorations thing. There was a total and complete lack of Griswold action in our yard, in no small part because this was the year that contained the November of Mass Chaos. I don't really know how it was that I never found time to string up a few thousand lights, but I didn't. At all.
Indoors, however, I did OK. I might have even done slightly better than OK as I managed to add a few trees this year. There is still a lot of room to expand the sparkly and bright stuff, but these things take time. At least that's what I keep telling myself.
First up, The Main Tree AKA The Tree That Martha Stewart Wouldn't Totally Hate.
Why, yes, every inch of that tree and the gifts under it all match. Why wouldn't they? Technically the tree was new this year (Purchased on clearance for 90% off at Target last February. There wasn't any sort of label on the box so I bought it without knowing what it looked like or if it would even fit in our house. Fortunately, Mr. Husband only had to take a hacksaw to about four inches of it, so I considered that quite the victory.). The ornaments have been around for a very long time, though. I tend to grab a box or two every year on clearance after the holidays and have been doing so for easily ten years. Eventually it all amounts to something, you know?
I need to add a tree topper next year. I haven't quite figured out what I want to do, but eventually the perfect idea will come to me.
The next tree is another one I've been slowly collecting ornaments for--The Boyd's Tree.
I don't know how many Boyd's plush ornaments are on it, but it's a lot.
Every last one of them makes me smile.
Falling under the category of "formerly adorable but now hanging on by a thread" is The Winnie the Pooh Tree.
I used to have enough Classic Pooh ornaments to cover a full-size tree, but as the years have gone by, the ornaments (and the Pooh as an angel tree topper) have slowly been breaking so now it's just a four-foot tall tree. It probably will be phased out completely next year because I just plain can't find ornaments for it.
The ones I have are cute, though.
Then there is a really sad tree which sits up in our loft. It's only sad because this was its first year and I don't have very many ornaments for it.
Eventually it is going to be The Obnoxiously Bright Colors Tree. There's a chance that it will also feature a lot of snowmen.
But that will depend on what I find on clearance once things are 90% off.
Going back to the playroom where the Pooh Tree lives, there is a second tree. This one was thrown together a couple of weeks ago.
It's not much now, but it is eventually going to be a very magnificently tacky Barbie Tree. It is bright pink with bright pink lights (the curtains behind it are red in real life, I swear it!). Currently there are a bunch of Barbie dolls hanging on it.
I might have enjoyed stringing them up by their necks. It's possible.
Speaking of tacky, Alexis' Christmas tree technically was never put away last year. Really. It has been lit up essentially every night for well over a year. It's in her bedroom, so I don't much care if she enjoys it all year around.
Alexis' Tree is MAGNIFICENT. It started with a big box of plain Christmas balls, but every year I've let her pick out an ornament or two or five to add to it. She always picks the most horrendous things possible. There are Dora ornaments, Hannah Montana ornaments, and even a High School Musical ornament. She picks whatever she is in to at the time, so she has created quite the time warp with ornaments.
We also have her pick out ornaments when we go on vacation, which means she has more than a few Disney World ornaments. Then there are the "special occasion" ornaments like the one from the Winter Classic.
To keep her tree from eventually turning into one giant commercial for children's television programming, I also pick up a "nice" ornament for her each year.
I learned the hard way that she can't have sterling silver ornaments within her reach. Obviously.
It's a good thing every ornament on that tree will go with her when she moves out. The fingerprints will be her problem.
Finally, the bestest tree of all is in our dining room. It isn't really themed, it's just whatever ornaments we like.
It sort of looks like crap from a distance, but I don't care because up close it's full of amazingness.
There are ornaments we've picked up during vacations.
Ornaments we have made.
There are ornaments that memorialize every pet we've ever had.
(That's Jasmine. She passed away a few years ago.)
(Powder)
(Meg)
(Ali)
I need to find ornaments for Cody and Max. Cody is Mission Impossible, though. Unfortunately.
Then there are the ornaments that I've been slowly collecting since junior high. Hallmark has stopped making them, but they used to make some incredible motion ornaments.
They have cords that plug into the light string. With that little bit of electricity, they are able to literally be in motion at all times. The one above has a little train and sled that goes around and around. The one below is a lot older and has a bunch of woodland creatures who are spinning in a circle.
I'm not the only one who loves the motion ornaments. Alexis spends hours watching them go around and around. She seems to think she will eventually get a few motion ornaments of her own, but she is very wrong. VERY WRONG.
They are mine. ALL MINE. I don't share.
If you're counting, that comes to a total of seven trees. So, yeah, I have seven trees that are at least four feet tall, though four are over six feet tall. I also have approximately a crapton of miniature trees. I figure that if it has lights, it counts in the How Many Trees Do I Have Game.
If you're playing that game by my rules, the answer is eleven. I have eleven trees that are fully decorated, including lights.
Next year I hope I manage to reach fifteen. It's my mission.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Reader Comments (10)
Cody's Havanese, right? There's a kiosk in the Clearview Mall (Butler) that has a lot of Havanese stuff but they're all white pups. They seem to customize. Might be worth the trip...but I can't make any promises!
We have 3 trees this year - one on each floor. I'll never reach 15 but maybe 5? Thanks for posting these!
Your trees are awesome. This makes me super jealous....but also extremely motivated for my house next year.
I love the pair of binoculars sitting above the window in the first picture (I thought we were the only ones who kept a pair handy). ;-) And second, I think the "Obnoxiously Bright Colors Tree" might have the potential to be my favorite. I look forward to seeing pictures of it next year! Thanks for sharing all of your trees. :-)
PS - I LOVE the curtains in your dining room. Did you make or buy them?
you made my heart oh so happy. they are beautiful!
i had to throw away my old (ancient, really) tree and i am in desperate need of a new fake tree, but can't bring myself to pay full price. this means i am crazy jealous of your 90% off tree. perhaps this saturday or sunday i will brave crowds and go tree shopping?
remind me to tell you the story of the one time i left my tree up all year long and how the great flood of 2004 took just about everything i owed except my tree and all the ornaments were not stored in the basement so they survived. christmas trees were always a symbol of hope and love, but are now a much bigger beacon of hope for me.
p.s. how long do you leave the trees up?
Your trees look just beautiful :) We hope you had a very wonderful Christmas. I hope we can finally get together in the New Year, it has been way too long since we have seen you. Happy New Year!!! Miss u guys...
Holy crap you have a million trees! They're awesome. I LOVE the photos you took of ornaments, they're all beautiful (or adorable, depending). Happy holidays!
I love all your trees! I may have just sent a link to this post to my husband a few friends b/c they think I am crazy with my 5 trees and goal of 9. This makes me look more normal. Thanks for that!
You need a pittsburgh sports tree with ornaments for each of the teams you guys support that is black and yellow!
I posted that comment before I was finished. I have two football trees (one for our college team and one for our NFL team) and I get to put them up at the start of football season! That means I get to enjoy sparkly lights from September thru mid January when I get enough energy to take them all down. It is genius really!
You make me look really bad, but since we travel during the holidays and we have moved to another country and left my tree behind, this year we didn't even put up a tree. But I see you compensated for that very well.