Trimming the Tree

Some of my best memories are of Christmastime in Utah as a child. The snow. The music. The pretty lights twinkling on our tree. The staying up all night long with my sister waiting for Santa to bring us a present. Ahhh....memories. One of the things that I loved about Christmas was decorating the tree. My mom let us kids do it all! From the assembly of our fine fake evergreen, to the last touch of tinsel. Many of our ornaments were homemade, so it didn't look much like the trees you would find in ZCMI, but we LOVED our tree!

So, this year when the tree was standing nice and tall in the corner of our living room, I began to reflect on the joy I had as a child decorating that old tree. And I realized that I have worried more as an adult about what my tree looked like, than about how much fun it would be for my kids to make the tree their own. I stepped back this year and let the children have at it...well...within reason. I still can't abide a clump of the same glass balls in one spot, so I may have moved a thing or two around. What can I say? I'm still a work in progress.

The lovely face of Gabe.

Timothy trimming the tree with care. You know, he actually thanked me a number of times for letting him decorate. He had such a good time!

Lizzy and her very favorite ornament, courtesy of Grandpa Piper. Thank you sooooo much Grandpa! I did have to insist, because of the sheer size of the thing, that Snow White find a home toward the rear. And Lizzy keeps it down low for better access.


Lovely my little princess...

Brennen was feeling icky, so he missed out this year. He didn't even complain, so he must not have been faking it.