Decorating Time

We did it! We made the dreaded plunge............................to a FAKE tree!! It is sad not going to get a real tree, but when we looked at the "fun" of a real tree, it just wasn't being remember as fun!! No mountain trip to cut down a tree (Matt works crazy hours after Thanksgiving, so if we hope to have a tree up and lit right after Thanksgiving, that is so out of the picture). We usually went to a tree stand, watched a man untie our beloved imperfect tree from a pole,and then proceed to tie it to the roof of our minivan - which I had to watch the entire ride home through the sunroof window for fear of it flying off the top! Then we had a different tree stand story each year: broken, didn't tighten, cracked, leaked, too small, too big, etc. And don't forget last year with our tree leaning on the wall! Then there were those years where our tree was in full rigor by the time Christmas came, so if you even looked at it, the bristle things would fall off! And oh, the vacuuming and watering. I am not a good caretaker!! I can do kids and that is it. No plants or animals - they all die! Therefore, artificial was looking pretty good. So we got the prelit beauty and I am quite pleased! Just open the box and watch the branches fall into place! With a little fluffing, viola, insta Christmas tree! And I have been very happy not having to upkeep the tree. Harper is in charge of plugging and unplugging it, so I don't have to do anything. We even have our outside lights on a timer and the 2 little trees Harper plugs in, so again, I am scott free! Finley got to take part in the decorating this year. So 8 little hands managed to get the thing decorated in record time. Of course the step stool is such a big hit, so the top half was decorated heavily and we had to even it out after the fact. They love to decorate the tree!

Finley liked the pinecones.

And of course decorating must be done with stocking boots! I still can't believe we have made it with these stocking this long! I bought these for red snowflake ones for the girls 1st Christmas - I bought 5. One for Matt, Carly, Chloe, myself and for 1 more baby that we thought we would have. So after Harper, we were perfect with our 5 stockings. Then came Finley. So I decided to just get solid white ones for the ends and give the kids the red snowflake ones. Then came Channing, and we still have 5 of those, so it worked out perfectly. I always forgot to get them monogrammed after Christmas so they would be ready for the next year. I guess now we can go ahead and monogram them since we have used up all our stockings! I love our crowded mantel!