Christmas Tree 2011

Our goal was to have our tree up by the Monday after Thanksgiving. Well, we had it up by Sunday but it took us until Tuesday night to have it decorated. That's okay though. Well worth the wait to not be rushed!

We just knew that this year Brianna would be thrilled at the opportunity to help us decorate the tree. Not so much. After the first couple of ornaments, it was more fun for her to create stories with the ornaments rather than hang them on the tree. But whatever kept her quiet!

I put some of the non-breakables in a basket for her and Hunter to play with. That turned out to be a great idea because it really kept them occupied and out from under our feet.



Every year I snap some pictures of my favorite ornaments. I try not to take pictures of the same ones year after year, but forgive me if I duplicate from previous years. There are certain ones I am always drawn to. :) This probably doesn't interest anyone else very much but all of my ornaments have special meaning to me which is why I love decorating the tree.

An ornament that Brianna and Leila ("Oma") made over Thanksgiving holidays. The camera lighting made this ornament look so cool! It is actually green but I love the way it looks with this light!

My 2011 ornament from Mom. She always picks ornaments that I love!

Some ornaments I got 75% off last Christmas! (I'm drawn to glitter, much to the chagrin of my hubby)

An ornament I got for Hunter last year... when it was 75% off. Whaaat!?

I remember buying this ornament when I was pregnant with Brianna in 2009! Ironic that her first handprint ornament from 2010 is in the background. :)

So over this tree-decorating thing.

Several people bought us "first-year" ornaments for our first Christmas together, but this was always my favorite. (From Jenn)

A quirky little snowwoman from my friend Tracey!

My new jingle bell ornaments... 75% last year, haha!

Another of Mom's originals. I love this one.

This was Brianna's ornament from Gail last year. Her first year as a big sister!

My new "disco ball" ornaments... guess I don't need to tell you I got them on sale.

I LOVE this ornament but for the life of me it's one of the only ones that I don't know where it came from!!

Brianna holding her 2011 hand up to her 2009 hand. Much bigger now!

Hunter's ornament last year from Gail:

Stephen despises tinsel. Loathes it. But he'll do pretty much anything for his two favorite women who just happen to LOVE the stuff!!

Finished product!

Oh Christmas tree

It seems like just a year ago we were doing this. Oh, yeah. We were. Well, here we are again! Fully decorated and the house is a pigsty because of it! Stephen's favorite time of the year! I thought I would post some of my favorite ornaments on our tree this year.

This is an ornament that I got from mom years ago (she gets us an ornament every year). I love it because I love the piano!

Every year we've been married we've bought a special ornament. This is our 2007 ornament.

I have a small collection of breast cancer awareness ornaments that I love!

These are our newest "name" ornaments:

These are also new this year (on sale last year). There are six different ones that say things like "Lord", "Jesus", "Emmanuel", etc. I love them!

Stephen has an entire collection of Sesame Street ornaments. Cute!

This was our 2006 ornament. It's actually made out of nails.

Our really favorite new ornaments this year!! Gail gave us the second one!!

Finished product:

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday...

What a nice weekend. Stephen's family from Georgia came down for the weekend, to take care of some personal matters and for Stephen's great-aunt's funeral in Eden. We spent Saturday in Eden with a ton of extended family that we never get to see. Last night when we got home, I was able to go meet Jenn&Matt and Libba&Jorge for drinks at The Barn. I was so happy to see all of them!




Aren't they all so beautiful!!??

Leila and I went out for a quick trip to Pier 1 and Belk today. I had a Pier 1 gift certificate I wanted to use up, and you won't believe the deal I got!! We walked up and they had some wicker chairs for $12!! The original price was $70! We got so excited that we ran in and got cushions to go with them, and a cute outdoor lamp for a citronella candle to keep the bugs away. Yes, I picked out everything all by myself. Amazing, I know. This is what they look like: (the cushions are reversible)




And this is what everyone else did this afternoon:



It was a beautiful afternoon. I was able to go running, also. So a very relaxing Sunday! I'll not want to go back to work tomorrow.