O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

We did it. We got our Christmas tree out of the garage...and out of the BOX! I'm sure those of you who venture out to chop down a real Christmas tree are down right jealous that we don't have to leave the comfort & warmth of our home. ha! Besides, who wouldn't want to build a tree out of a box as one of their family's yearly traditions? To be honest, even though I think it would be wonderful to have a real Christmas tree, there are MANY reasons why we can't/don't have one. The two main reasons are 1) the cats would eat the tree and drink it's water (they even eat fake plants/trees) and 2) I hate to get the inside of our car muddy...never mind that we have all weather floor mats! Ok, there, I admitted that I hate dirt...no making fun of me!

Last year we decided to keep the tree in it's box...in the garage. Sienna was rolling all over the house and I could just see her pulling the tree down on top of her. Plus, we were in Bend for Christmas so we figured it wasn't worth the effort of putting it up. I have been looking forward to putting our tree up all year...and this week we finally did it! Even Brayden was super excited to put up our Christmas tree. What fun that he's finally getting old enough to get into the Christmas spirit!

It doesn't look like much now, but just wait until it's done. We've actually had this tree for at least 6 years. And, it looks the same today as it did the day we bought it...we have definitely gotten our money's worth!

Even Sienna was curious about the "tree in a box"!

Here's the infamous "box"!

After all that hard work, Brayden earned the right to put the topper on the tree!

When it came time to put the tree skirt around the tree, Sienna crawled right under the tree with daddy so she could help, too!

We were so busy this week that we didn't have time to decorate the tree until 2 days after the tree went up (and 2 days of listening to Brayden whine about wanting to put the lights on). Of course, both kids thought it was more fun to decorate themselves with the lights...

Since Brayden has always had a thing for plugging stuff in, he got to plug in each new strand of lights.

Next came the decorations! Both kids tried their hardest to hang the decorations, but in the end, I think Chris and I ended up hanging them all. Sienna kept pulling the tops (hook and all) off the balls and Brayden couldn't seem to get his hooked onto the branches. But, it was still so much fun to decorate the tree for the first time as a family!

When we bought our tree 6 years ago, we bought the only tree ornaments we could find at the time...they were a lovely silver and gold. Since either the cats or the kids manage to break at least one ornament a year, we haven't invested in new, prettier ornaments. Maybe next year I'll get my silver and red tree ornaments that I've been wanting for what seems like forever. Ever since I found out that I was pregnant with Brayden, I've also wanted personalized stockings and tree ornaments. Now that our family is complete, I found the perfect stockings and ornaments to personalize. Here is our new family ornament:

Here's is Brayden's special pirate ornament. Each year I plan to buy the kids a new ornament as one of our new family traditions.

Sienna's pink castle!

Our new stockings! The true colors didn't come across very well in the picture...the red should be more of a dark red. If you look closely, the stockings are not actually on the stocking hooks....they are taped to the mantel (I will be so mad if the tape takes the paint off!!!). I still think these are the perfect stockings, but they sewed the hook onto the stocking the wrong way so they don't hang right. On the bright side, at least I don't have to worry about the kids pulling the stockings down and getting hit in the head with the hooks!

While I was looking for stocking and ornaments, I found this cute family decoration. I chose the year 2007 because that was our first Christmas with all 4 of us.