O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

I had wanted to put up our tree after Thanksgiving dinner, but since I am on bed rest I have little control over what gets done and when. Matthew was too tired to do it. A few days later he finally got around to pulling it out of the attic. Once put together we found that our poor pre-lit tree was no longer lit, at least a lot of it wasn't lit. I was so disappointed. Matthew went to the store a few days later and bought an inexpensive pre-lit tree. With the baby coming we couldn't not afford to put a lot of money in the tree. It was a little disappointing to look at it once it was put up. It is not very full. After being decorated, it cleaned up pretty nice, though. I am so happy to have a tree up and really enjoyed watching Jamie decorate it.

I stayed up late last night to surprise Jamie with a Christmas Countdown Calendar. I think it turned out pretty cute. I did it with a piece of green poster board. I used foam craft paper to make the ornaments and even cut out aluminum foil for the tops to make them look more realistic. If you've never tried to cut anything small out of aluminum foil you are really missing out on some fun (if you could hear me say that you could note the sarcasm dripping from my tongue).

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I put the Christmas tree up. I'm not sure who is more excited about it, Jamie or the cats. I think maybe the cats. They keep playing in it, much to my dismay. Ornaments are flying all over my house. Last night one of the cats got so tangled in the Christmas lights that I was afraid we would have to cut them to get him out. Usually, I would have done it without much thought, but this tree is pre-lit and would permanently destroy our tree. We managed to twist the cat until we could dislodge him from the lights. I'm just glad he got them wrapped around his rear. If it had been his neck we would have been forced to ruin the tree. After we got the little booger untangled he went right back to his mission of destroying the tree. I wish I had some way of keeping the cats out of our living room.

We decorated the tree with garland made from pipe cleaners and there's lots of little salt dough ornaments. I also put the usual balls and trinket ornaments. I put an old star on top. It was one that my grandmother had. I have no idea how old it is, but it's probably older than I am. Putting up the star was a challenge. I finally accomplished the feat with pipe cleaners.

I always put apples on the tree as a throwback from my own childhood. When I was little my favorite book was Johnny Appleseed. For the first few years that I could talk, I called the Christmas tree my apple tree. I was delighted when Jamie saw the tree and the first thing he exclaimed was, "Look at the apples!" I need to find that book. I can't believe I've never told him the story of Johnny Appleseed.

Jamie's Salt Dough Ornaments

I finally got more salt dough ornaments done. I ended up making way more dough than we had the time and patience to make ornaments with in one setting. I put the extra dough in baggies and pressed out as much air as I could to try to preserve the dough for more ornament making later. I'm not sure how effective that will be in keeping the dough from hardening, but it was worth a shot. I put the dough in the baggies yesterday afternoon and so far they still feel pliable.

Matthew, Jamie, and I made decorations together last night. I fell asleep before they were done baking and Matthew pulled them out of the oven for me. They are not quite done. You can tell by the dark areas. I will have to bake them some more later.