O Christmas Tree 2014

I love Christmas. Love wreaths (does it show?! LOL!) - we have two that match - one over the garage and one on our front door. I prefer white lights and have those over the garage, my DH prefers multi-color lights and has those on the door with ornaments I'd hung. Love the tree, admit I keep it up WAY too long. I promise my DH that we'll have it down by my eldest son's b'day (early Feb) and there have been years it's been close! I keep thinking that one of these years we'll get it put up soon after Thanksgiving and take it down soon after Christmas, but we often put it up Christmas week and this year was no exception.

This year's tree is almost all red ornaments ... there are a few Christmas sentiments (iron word stampings I'd picked up at a craft show years ago which the artist painted white and frosted w glitter ... so pretty, and this year I put up the believe, joy, Merry Christmas, noel, and peace sentiments), my fav of the needlework ornaments (most I made, some are from friends in my needlework guilds), some crystal snowflakes (I'd picked up a few in recent years and my family got me the latest Swarovski one for Christmas this year. They're BEAUTIFUL and reflect SO much light ... awesomeness!), a set of metal curly-q twirled ribbon-look ornaments, and just a couple of my favs ... a great rocking horse and a great bird's nest one. Then we tossed on only our red ornaments. We have mixed ones, then a set of ivory, and a set of red ones. This year I found a couple deals at dollar stores so picked up more red ones ... some tiny ones I put on the kitchen table tree that you can spot on the mantle in the pic, and some more different-shaped reds - in assorted ornament shapes, different finishes - some mat, some sparkly, some dusted w glitter.

We broke down in 2002 and went with a pre-lit fake tree for our great room, then when lots of the lights quit on us replaced it in 2010 ... and I'm noticing that some of its lights are now quitting on us. I'd picked up multiples of cranberry/peppermint candy strands years ago that I strung together and that goes on first, followed by lots of glass icicles (thanx, Bronner's, as we've picked up multiple packages of various sized ones over the years from our main supplier), then the sentiments, and lastly, ornaments. Ta da! OK, so I just wrote a whole post about our tree!

Besides the main and kitchen trees, we have another one that's only about 4' tall that's by the entry to the kitchen that we leave up year-round. It's decorated in acorns, ribbons, berries, and assorted tiny kitchen-y ornaments - whisks, baskets, milk cans, flour sifters, strainers, muffin tins, aprons - thanx to Hallmark for this tree! I remember I'd originally ordered it for the kitchen table, but hadn't realized the proportion would be way too large for the space ... so it got relegated to the entry which is about 4' wide as well.

Other than that, we have a few wall hangings here and there, and a pre-lit holly-look vine across the mantle, small cranberry/twig wreath, wicked cool stained glass cardinal (my Mom and I have collected cardinals over the years), and some candles and metal snowflakes on the mantle.

So, how'd YOU decorate this year? Thanx for stopping by! We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!