Ornaments...Check.

We did finally get our tree covered in lights and ornaments yesterday. It has been such a crazy week with Brian home and just the busy Advent season. I still don't have my Christmas cards in the mail yet (stuffing them this weekend to go out on Monday.) Nor are my gifts for the children completed yet. I am attempting to hand make them all some things. I borrowed a sewing machine tonight since mine is kaput. So, hopefully, I can get those done in the coming week. That should explain my less frequent posting, I suppose.

Back to the tree, I love putting the ornaments on. It is something I treasured as a child, putting the ornaments on with my sister and mom and remembering the story or person behind each one. Now the girls are both old enough to join in that tradition with me. For the last 8 years, I have pretty much had to reminisce alone since my husband, not unlike my father, just doesn't get the whole ritual.

I have all my ornaments labeled (on the box in which they are stored) with from whom or where they came and to whom they were given. I am curious, does anyone else do this? My mom didn't label hers, we just all remembered and passed down the stories, but I just don't trust myself not to forget some. A few of the ornaments on our tree are actual falling apart and ugly, as my daughters put it. I, however, like them even more just because I know they are older than me and have a history. My mother gave me these, some of my favorite old ornaments, when I got married and had my own tree. They've been hung upon a Christmas tree every year for over a quarter of a decade. The kids have been given some ornaments as well over the years, although Hannah seems to have far more than her younger siblings. That's the way it goes, I guess. Hannah's favorite ornament is her newest ballerina ornament she received for her birthday. Genna latched onto her ceramic rattle ornament from ornament that was given to her at birth by my mom. Isaac's favorite is a new ornament that I purchased here in Germany last year. It is a fishing bear in full fishing garb. He growls at it frequently.

We have no star or angel to top the tree this year. Instead I hung our baby Jesus in a manger on the very top branch.



As you can see in these pictures taken after or annual family tree blessing and lighting, the tree is definitely more heavily lit on top. I had to go buy more lights mid tree and only could find strands with 20 lights on them. So I bought 10 boxes and figured about 1 strand per branch or two. I was pretty close on my estimate, but what I failed to realize is that the spacing is so very different that there is no way to make it look even. Oh well!

So far Isaac is doing well with the tree, by the way. I only have to block it off when I am cooking dinner, so far. He tends to act out during this time of day anyway to get attention. His molars are breaking through this week, so he's a bit of a bear right now.