This year I left the tree decorating almost entirely in the hands of the girls. This resulted in some significantly uneven ornament distribution, but it was so fun and adorable that I barely even rearranged some a tiny bit, in the night, when there were no witnesses.
Avery's favorite branches - approximately 50% of all ornaments were placed here:
After the decoration Ella wanted a photo shoot - and because I find her photo shoot posing and direction generally HILARIOUS I obliged. Here is Ella's choice for best picture - I call it, "The World's Saddest Christmas Children" and seriously contemplated making it our Christmas card:
Here was my choice:
We also spent some time decorating the rest of our house, including the front window with sweet snowmen we made one night. I cut out the circles for the body and helped Avery cut out the shapes but Ella pretty much did hers on her own! Her's is the one with the red had with no scarf, Avery's has the black hat (because black is her favorite color) and mine is the one with the scarf and no mouth (because the hockey game was starting and I wanted to watch it.)
Inside I had the joy of decorating (for the first time EVER in this house) our BRAND NEW MANTEL!!! And although it is only minimally decorated I love it so.
For those of you not aware of the epic mantle standoff that has lasted essentially the entirety of Avery's life, let me tell you a little story:
Back in the summer of 2008, right after we moved into this house, Aaron and I decided to re-do our old fireplace which was made of horrible, ugly and extremely child unfriendly orang-ey rocks. Also it was ugly. So, Aaron ripped it down and started to put up the new beautiful slate mosaic tiles.
We had made a deal, that if he finished the fireplace (mantel included) he could use that year's PFD to buy a giant tv to mount above it. Because that was his dream. So, the deal was made and work commenced. But then, somehow, the wiring for surround sound got installed, the tv mounting bracket thing got installed, other wiring for the tv got installed - BUT, no mantel or grout. Weird. So, October rolls around and we get the tv, despite the lack of mantel and grout.
Inevitably the years pass - 2009, 2010, most of 2011 and then, a few weeks ago, BAM - mantel! And it is beautiful and I love it. I might love it more if it didn't take 3 1/2 years to complete, but whatever. Also, still no grout!
So, in its long awaited blog debut - my mantel:
Isn't it lovely!
A close up of my favorite Christmas pillow that I made a year or so ago and am quite fond of and do not let anyone sit on or use as a jumping path across the lava that sometimes overtakes our living room floor:
Ohhh, snowflakey! Also in the spirit of unfinished projects from many years ago, I discovered these in the great craft room clean out of 2011, cute elves I embroidered on my work lunch breaks while pregnant with Avery. I found some old frames (also in the craft room - where does all this stuff come from?) and hung them up. And I love them!
I also put some ribbon around my lampshade because I saw it on tv and I am easily influenced by tv.
So there is our Christmas decorations - perhaps the most we have ever done. And yet, Ella keeps asking "when are we going to finish decorating for Christmas?" Maybe it is a work in progress after all...
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