One of the first things to check off our Holiday Bucket List was decorating the tree, of course! And I am really loving reading Christmas books with Vienna by the tree! We (Mike) decided last year’s tree was a little small for our space, so we went to look at bigger trees and ended up with what in comparison seems like a ginormous one (it’s really only 1.5 feet taller). Mike and I were laughing thinking of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when they undo the ties and the branches go shooting through the living room window. Anyone else thinking “It’s not going in our yard, Russ?”
One of my favourite things is how personal our tree is becoming to our family. I love a beautifully coordinated window-front tree, but even I will let my OCD slide for special memories 😉 A tradition we have started is every time we travel, we pick up a new ornament from our destination! It’s the perfect souvenir and saves us from buying tourist junk. When we put them out on the tree it’s fun to reminisce about the trip we took. I started collecting ornaments on a family trip to Ireland, Scotland and Spain. And then Mike and I continued the tradition on our honeymoon– we went on a Caribbean cruise and picked one up from each of the islands we visited, which helped to quickly build our collection. Vienna is now helping pick out the ornaments, hence the zebra carousel from our recent trip to San Diego— the perfect addition to our tree! It was really sweet when we pulled that one out: with the trip still fresh in her mind she got very excited remembering the carousel ride.
My Aunt gives the girls an ornament with their name or initial each year, and one day these will be theirs for their own tree. Finally, we have a special angel we hang on the tree in memory of my Mom. The last few years before she passed she started decorating beautiful, amazing trees. My Dad said she waited years until my sister and I lost interest in the (tacky) tree decorating and then started making beautiful themed trees. I’m sure in a few years I too will be overrun with homemade Christmas ornaments from school, but right now one of my favourites is V’s little Santa hand from daycare when she was one!
It’s so funny to see how different Aria and Vienna are at this age– Vienna had zero interest in touching the ornaments on the tree when she was a baby and really just loved looking at the lights. Aria on the other hand has made ripping the silver beads off the bottom of the tree a daily occurrence. I have a feeling it might be a long month.
Christmas is such a special time of year and I love creating traditions and memories for my girls. Share below if you have any special tree traditions that you are passing on to your kids! xo
P.S. Anyone else seriously struggling with the multi-colour light option? Miss V is obsessed with changing them from white to multi-colour, and I can barely handle it, LOL!
