The Taming of the Tannenbaum

Merry SITSMAS!!!

So its that time of year,,time for the Christmas tree (or O Tannenbaum). So every year as a child, we would go out on the day after thanksgiving (long before we knew it as black Friday), and we would run around Gergley's tree farm in NY.We would run in six different directions and try to pick out the perfect tree. I frankly feel nervous at the thought of four kids running amuck without supervision, but perhaps as I grow older and wiser I'll be more calm about such things. We would base our judgments on the 'fullness, height, and color of the tree'. We also would check and make sure there were no 'holes' or big gaps in growth cuz those are hard to fill. It was okay if there were just one hole because then we could put it against the wall, but multiple holes were not good enough. When we all agreed (can you imagine this taking awhile it totally did and its cold!) we would put our name on a tag and label it ours. We'd later come back before Christmas to cut it down, but it was ours. Some years we'd forget where we put the tag, or someone would take our tagged tree and we couldn't find it, but overall we got the tree!

So when we moved upstate, we did the same thing, only now we were starting to go off to college. My mom wanted us to come home for thanksgiving with a tree up so we could be in the holiday spirit for a long time even if we were away. So she'd put up a artificial tree in the living room to look at all day and when we got home we'd do the real tree all together.

This continued and still does.

So now I have my own place with Kevin and we're starting new traditions. I thought it might be a bit much to tackle a real tree in year #1 (but its SO happening next year!) So I was lucky enough to borrow my parents old artificial tree and put that up. I got all the parts together and worked on 'fluffing it' for about a week so that you didn't see any (or many rather) holes or gaps. Then Kevin and I put the lights on and some decorations to make it our own. Because it was my first tree away from the parents I wanted to try a white-light only tree. I can always add color in with the ornaments or in the future with the lights too but as a start,,as a base. So we did.

This weekend we put the lights on and then took them off and then redid them, and then started with ornaments. What you see in the pic above is just lit, w/o ornaments.

I got these cool ornaments from Kohls that actually look like lil Brillo pads of silver that kinda sponge around the lights so they glow. SUPER cool. I hope there are more when I go back later for them! I'll look for some close ups later tonight!

UPDATE: Here are the pics...
(off the tree on the table)


(on the tree not turned on yet)


(pulled back so you can see the pretty silver and red ones too,, can you see where they will be?? prepare for the picture with the lights on!!!!)


BAM!!! (can you see the ones I love amidst the other ones? how they reflect the light in a larger sense and more luscious... so much love!)



So anyway you may say 'whats with the taming alliteration at the beginning'...
Well the tree with its artificial splendor attacks back. When I was putting the lights on and fluffing the branches, it didn't seem to like it very much and cut my hands all up.



You cant even see my arms, but they're ripped up! Scratches and cuts that are not healing easily (grrr). We did most of the decor on Saturday and this pic is from Monday! Two days latter and better but not gone ick!

So I still need to find a tree topper that I like and then both Kevin and I have received some family-owned decorations that were 'ours' when we were kids on our parents tree and we'll put them up later this week. Building traditions is fun,, but sometimes painful don't you think!?