Thursday, December 20, 2007

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

Sunday our tree finally went up. Had to finish painting the living room before the tree could go up. One more project completed.


Our mirrored wall around the fireplace was nice until it was covered with fingerprints (which took about 2 seconds after we moved in). I hardly wash the windows, so the mirrors never got cleaned. So what do you do with something so breakable? Why break it of course!





After the first break, we found this absolutely adorable shade of brown paneling underneath.








Now, no memories of mirrors or fingerprints.









So with that done (and the green wall you can see the reflection of in the 1st picture now matches the rest of the room), the tree could finally go up!

Sunday the four of us fluffed branches and got them all in place. I put the lights up. And that's how the tree sat until last night. Ed works late on Wednesday's, so I gave the option to the kids of either decorating cookies or the christmas tree. Christmas tree was the unanimous vote (cookies are tonight's project).

This year I took a different approach to decorating the tree. I sat on the floor and was in charge of all the hooks. I let the two of them put the ornaments up with no help from me. So the top 1/4 of the tree was bare. :) They did a fantastic job and I had to let go of my left-braininess and not make everything look symmetrical. I kept telling myself (amidst breathing exercises) that it was OK to have three pink balls all in a row or a large section of bare branches. It was difficult, but I survived. After they went to bed, the few ornaments that fell off, I put up top.

This morning I put the tree back in place and added the final touch: Henreitta (she's our angel). I think this is the longest we'll have had our tree up since we've lived in this house.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The room looks great! I'm impressed that you "let go" of the decorating. I personally have a really hard time with that...I remember one year there was quite a light-hanging argument. Hence the pre-lit tree now. :)

Jean said...

very smart for your marriage..the pre-lit tree.. :)

Hillary said...

The tree looks great! The kid's touch makes it special! :)

Unknown said...

I do like my marriage...seemed like a good idea at the time...

Jean said...

Very good idea.. :)
One that really tested our marriage was getting a fresh cut tree straight and in the stand. Ed would put it in. I would hold it just right and he'd crawl under to tighten the screws. I'd shift to a not so prickly position and we'd start over again. Fake tree is much easier. :)