Oh Christmas Tree

....at Lowes.

I'm disappointed to announce that my husband and I took a trip to Lowes for our Christmas Tree this year.  I was incredibly embarrassed in doing so (if you get yours there every year I apologize if I offend you, I already did my sister-in-law) because I've always went with the family to a tree farm to pick out and cut our own.  I sort of prided myself in cutting it down instead of watching the man do it. 

This year a "real" tree wasn't happening for us.  While we had the time to go get one, it wasn't worth the money for the amount of time we would enjoy the tree.  Having picked up the tree Monday evening and leaving for a cruise next Wednesday then not returning home till 1 am Christmas morning, we have about 10 days to enjoy before my husband would want to take it down after Christmas.  Little time = cheap tree from Lowes.

We actually enjoyed a stroll through a Christmas Tree farm with my cousin, her husband and their two little girls to look for their tree this past weekend.  Ironically, they ended up driving somewhere else and buying a pre-cut one.  I wouldn't have left without one if it were me, but since we weren't near home, it wasn't worth getting one for us while out.

After letting the branches fall down for a day I decided no more scrawny 5'-7" undecorated tree for me, it was depressing.  So after 14 hours at work I came home to a lit tree (thanks to the husband who I called on my way home) and began decorating at 10 pm.  The ornament box was set out and I started opening all the individual boxes to decide which ornaments I wanted this year.  Since we now have 2 kittens in the house, I was VERY worried about how they would react to the tree and especially dangling ornaments.  So far so good (yes, I just jinxed myself, I know).  I did put less breakable ornaments on the tree and only put completely non-breakables at the bottom.

Last year, the first Christmas ever spent with my husband, we started out on a search to find a tree topper and tree skirt.  We found a topper that was good enough for now and I do really like.  Until I find the perfect one, I'll be enjoying our star.  The tree skirt was a bit tricky.  Our living space downstairs is decorated in a lot of orange and brown tones.  So although the color of Christmas is Red, I was trying to avoid that throughout decorating.  We finally came upon a dark green velvet skirt that was simple and sweet (and just the right price). 

Besides those two items, I already had all the ornaments.  My parents have always given me an ornament every year for Christmas that means something from the past year.  I also had a lot of other childhood ornaments, ones my Mom was getting rid of, and various ones I've bought that were cute during after-Christmas sales.  The memento ornaments really deserve a post of their own (maybe next year).  I love them because every time I pull one out I think of what it means, what happened that year, why my parents bought it for me.  Once my husband and I were engaged they started ornaments for him too, so now our collection grows even more every year.

I'm always surprised seeing on blogs when people do a theme on their tree.  Don't get me wrong they are awesome and gorgeous, just not my cup of tea.  Probably because I grew up with a tree decorated with various ornaments.  I love all the different ones.  I love people asking me why I have a drum set or beetle bug (the car) hanging on my tree.  I especially love the real sentimental ones like our engagement ornament, our first house ornament or the wedding invite/bulletin ornament (see below) I made after our wedding. 

It's simples.  It's sweet.  It's full of memories.  It's ours.

I'm glad I got my little baby tree, even though it's from Lowes because it simply wouldn't be Christmas without it.  And don't let the angle of this picture fool you, we still have 2 feet above the star that I fully intend on using with our tree next year!

Now to add some presents under the tree...

Gift Wrapping Fun (Part One)

It's December, so I know I don't have to ask if you're in the Holiday mood yet.  I try to hold strong to my "No Christmas to December" but retail stores and all you're cute posts about decorating made it really hard this year.  I did good except for getting my Christmas CDs in the car out 2 days early (N'SYNC and Hanson Christmas in case you were wondering, don't judge me).  I have a good excuse though, don't we always?  I'm heading out on a cruise right before Christmas so I'm losing 15 days of Christmas in the car during my commute.

But none of you want to hear about my upcoming cruise, although with this nice weather (at least here in OH) I'm sure no one is jealous.

I'm here today to show you some fun wrapping ideas for Christmas.  I have ALWAYS loved wrapping gifts.  When I was younger my mom let me wrap everyone's gifts....even my own.  Don't tell me you never did the pick out your gift and have Mom wrap it up for a "surprise" on Christmas morning.  I always got other real surprises too and would frequently forget the gift I picked out, so it worked out just fine.

I started my wrapping fun by doing my husbands gifts first.  He happened to be out of the house for a basketball game (since I am rarely at home without him there) so I got to work.  Our first Christmas together was last year.  It was actually our first EVER Christmas together.  The 3 Christmas we were together when dating (and even engaged) were spent separately with our own families.

With no fireplace at our townhouse, we set out to find the perfect spot to hang the stockings.  We considered below the TV stand, along the staircase, on the wall and under the window opening into our kitchen.  Guess who won?

I really do love this spot.  It sticks out into the hallway so it's a great additional Christmas decoration.  It also helps keep down on the amount of gifts since they get in the way otherwise.  Our rule is only gifts that fit in the stocking.  Is that always possible....no.  The day before I wrapped these I bought my husband some more early gifts for our cruise (dress clothes) so those obviously don't fit in.

Enjoy the little sneak peak of my Christmas decorations there!

Here they are all wrapped up.  I try to stick with one or two different wrapping papers.  My parents always wrapped my gifts from Santa in a single paper so that they didn't have to write our names. 

I tried to dress up each package with a bow or embellishment.  I always used some of my favorite bows on the husbands gifts because then I can keep them to re-use.  It's a disease I picked up from my great-grandma....savings bows, tissue paper, bags and I have been known to save wrapping paper pieces

What's my number one tool in wrapping gifts (besides scissors and tape)?  Yep, it's my foot.  I apologize to anyone getting a gift from me.







I have some slight OCD tendencies, so I get pretty crazy with making sure seams line up.  It's not always possible, but when it is I have to make it work.

Here we have simple and sweet with a sparkly bow.  Decided on green since my other paper is green.

This one got a fun red and white snowman ribbon.  It was short so couldn't be used on a big gift.  Since it's for my husband and I get to keep it after, I'll use it in a different way next year.

I really like the felt Christmas tree I attached to one of the gifts.  I hit up a lot of after-Christmas sales last year at various stores to add to my wrapping collection.  These felt trees came in a 3 pack and I got 3 or 4 different colors.  I plan on using others this year for family gifts to color code so I don't need tags.

Well, that's a wrap for now.  Hopefully I'll be back with a few more fun wrapping ideas as I work through all my gifts and get everything packaged (aka "Part 2" to this post).  I'm excited to wrap all the gifts for the baby girls in my family.  There are 4 and each one gets a cute outfit!  Here's a better look at the window nook we hung stockings...and by stockings I mean stocking.  My husband still needs to fill and hang mine. 

My dad cross stitched my husbands stocking and my mom finally got it put together for this year.  Mine is also cross stitched and I have had it for years.  I love how sentimental they are.  My dad is even working on ones for my nieces now.  I love that we will always have these and one day my kids will too!

Next up?  Hopefully our Christmas tree.

Who wants to take a guess on how many of the 4 packages for my husband are the same (or similar) items???  I'll be back to spill the beans on that after the Holiday!

Welcome to my Journey in Blogland

I was so excited to start my blogging adventure with a bang that I forgot to have my memory card on hand to add pictures to my first post on Holiday gift wrapping.  So that will be my second post ever...coming tomorrow (fingers crossed).

As an official "Welcome" I'd just like to say thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog, whether you're new to the blog writing world (like me), a long time blogger, or got here by accident (most likely).  Hopefully you find something along my journey that can inspire you.  I've been following quite a few blogs for some time now (see my sidebar) and have finally decided to take inspiration from them and start my own.  I hope you will do the same.