Trimming the Tree

I had been waiting for my Lowes gift cards to come in the mail from our rebate rewards on the discover card before buying our tree. They finally came on Tuesday and Wednesday I ran over to Lowes to pick our environmentally safe tree. I was able to purchase the last tree they had for 50% off of the ticket price. Score! Once the kids went down for their nap, my mom and I got busy putting it together and fluffing out the branches. I love this tree, because it only had 3 pieces to connect and the lights are already built in. Having a fake tree means that I can start decorating our home Thanksgiving weekend next year, don't have to worry about pine needles all over the floor nor having to water the tree. I think the tree looked pretty all by itself without any decorations.

Last night was our first night home as a family, which meant it was time to decorate the tree!

Kya and Seth danced together while I got everything ready.

For each of the kids 1st Christmas, I made clay molds of their hands. This was the first ornament that each child hung up. Kya went first. Followed by Seth. Notice that he had to put his exactly where Kya put hers.
Then I help Elsie hang her ornament up.
When I was a kids, we always had the youngest cousin put the Angel up. Elsie tried, but in the end, daddy actually had to do the honors. In our little family, we will have to rotate this job each year.
Kya carefully putting on more ornaments.

While Elsie had to check out each and every ornament.
Seth did his part too.
As you can imagine, all the ornaments were placed on the bottom half of the tree, as that is where the kids can reach. They ended up all bunched together like this.
and this.

After they were all in bed sound asleep, I went ahead and redecorated the tree to space things out more evenly. Our finished product.

Of course, this morning the tree has been investigated by my little ones and I see that I will have to do some redecorating again when they go down for naps. I may just end up with only the top half of the tree decorated. hmmm. I am also thinking I am missing a box, because I can't find a few things. Guess I will be going up into the attic during nap too.