Decorating the tree

We decorated our tree last night and had so much fun. There was a little bit of a rough start just figuring out what box the decorations where in. Apparently I have too many Christmas boxes and the storage room light was not working and all the flashlights had no batteries. So typical for our household. We did manage to find the right one with a itty bitty flashlight I had in my purse. Because the tree is smaller than usual we only put on about half the ornaments but everyone got to put their favorites on. It is always the ones they either made or represent something special in their lives. Sounds like a hallmark commercial.

I have two favorites. The Blob, that I made in the third grade. Many jokes have been made about this ornament over the years but it has it's own place on the tree; on the bottom in the back and tucked behind a branch.

The other ornament that brings back many memories is one that I have had as long as I can remember. My two sisters had similar ones in pink and green but mine was blue and I have hung it on the tree every year. It is a girl singing, probably in the church choir. As a little girl I sang all the time so that is probably why I was given this one.

My grandson found the nativity set very interesting. I have a beautiful ceramic one that my mother hand painted but this is a plastic one that I bought when my kids where little so they could play with it. He looked at all the pieces and then put them to bed under the tablecloth. We had to leave them there until he went to bed or he got very upset.

My two jokesters kept things very lively. My daughter was wearing one of the ornaments she made around her neck for a little bling. It did eventually make it to the tree though. My other two kids were a bit camera shy so I will have to snap a few of them later.

My grandson really got into the decorating thing. He was so good handling the ornaments too and hung quite a few on his own along the bottom of the tree. We put on Christmas music and danced and he kept the Santa hat on the whole time. Sweet memories were made for sure.

We have this really old ornament box that has faded over the years but it keeps the ornaments in pretty good shape. We need to get a new one one of the these days. My husband's job is to hand the ornaments to everyone and make sure they all have hangers on them.

And finally, we have the tradition of making our first bowl of chex mix while we decorate the tree. It gets passed around and enjoyed by all. It is kind of funny to me that quite a few of our traditions have been started without a thought to them being a tradition in the years to come. We just did something and then repeated it the next year and then the kids thought it was a tradition that we did every year. Now, if we miss doing something, they are upset. When we are all done decorating we turn off all the lights, except the tree lights and sing Silent Night.

Now we are ready to put some packages under the tree. I guess I had better get wrapping.