Christmas Decorating

We put our tree up last weekend. We usually go to a local Christmas parade on Thanksgiving weekend, but decided to skip it this year since the boys have been sick. We figured standing outside in 30 degree weather might just set us two steps back in our efforts to get them over their bronchitis and ear infections... Little did we know "The flu of 2010" would strike anyway... So we put our tree up rather than going to the parade. N was a really good helper this year. He likes to find things that match and our tree is color coded, so he had fun matching the color on the core of the tree to the colors on each branch. Does this photo remind you of the Griswold Family Christmas too?

I've enjoyed decorating for Christmas since I was a little girl. I remember pulling out whatever odds and ends Mom had on hand and arranging them all over the house. I certainly do not claim to be a pro by any means, but I still enjoy it. Over the last few days I've been putting out decorations when I get a few minutes. I am challenging myself to use the decorations we have without buying too many new things. One thing I have lots of are plain white candles. I wanted to incorporate them some how but I wanted to jazz them up a bit, so I decided to try to find some ribbon to wrap around them. I didn't find any ribbon, but I did find some pretty leftover wrapping paper from last year. The light bulb went on. I decided to partially wrap the candles with wrapping paper. I obviously know this would pose a fire hazard if you placed the paper too close to the wick, so I placed the paper in the middle of the candle. I wrapped the paper around each candle and put tape over the paper so it didn't hurt the candles.

Here's the tree and the mantel together. I might try to find something to hang over the tv if I can figure out how to hang it without damaging the wall.

I'm brainstorming ideas for what to put in our half bath (now painted blue), our "shelf" above the closet in the entry way and in the stairwall going to our upstairs. I'm kinda in the mood to make something, we'll see. And if I don't get around to it, so be it. Maybe I'll do it next year.