How Lovely Are Thy Branches

I took a break from Christmas last year- well, decorating, at least- because last year was rough, and nobody cared if we had a tree or Christmas stockings.  Russ and I got to play Mary and Baby Jesus in our  Kirton family Christmas Pageant, and that was sweet and beautiful enough to fill Christmas with all the merry and all the bright that we needed.

This year, we have spent the autumn-to-winter season having the kitchen and "formal dining room" melded to one shining new unit of culinary mediocrity and party hosting virtuosity.  Due to these extenuations, I can't put stuff on our floors, like couches or plastic trees, so I was going to let it go this year, too.  But I have a talker, and she talked the phrase, "We'll have a Christmas tree... someday..." wistfully enough times that I decided to put a plastic Christmas tree on the little patch of carpet where we spend our lives. 

I am not a talented decorator.  I ache to be one, yet I remain a flounderer in the world of Pinterestable spaces.  I LOVE the Festival of Trees and always think, "That.  I'll do that this year."  I'm a Kimsey, what can I say?  If we had a family motto, it would be, "I can do that.  (It'll be cheaper that way.)"

This is what I always plan:

This is what I end up with:

I try so big.

When we were first married I bought a $20 prelit tree off of ksl and decorated it with Mardi Gras beads and bras, a la the "bra trees" at every ski resort in the world.  It had a snowbird star.  We thought it was hilarious.

It turns out, not as many people as I believed are familiar with the ubiquitous Bra Trees, and it not only made MANY people uncomfortable, but actually offended a few people.  Offended!  Can you imagine?

So this year, not having room for our  being interested enough only to drag the prelit tree out from under the stairs, I got out the Christmas ornaments and began to decorate, still with my Pinteresty ideals in place.  And then I began to decorate a tree with toddlers.  So then, every single ornament we own was placed carefully, or shoved enthusisatically onto the tree, which was wedged in the only sliver of space that made any sense and also had an outlet.  We ran out of ornaments at some point, so the mardi gras beads had to go up.

 But "we" didn't want to be done, so the old snowbird star was placed,

and my Sterling Scholar medal, and a few of my necklaces, too.

Only when Russell thougtfully hooked a teething ring on a low branch, did we sit back and think, "Well I guess we're tired of this, now."

But?  My favorite tree I have ever seen.  There's a Seuss-y quality to it that is so much fun, I just... I just can't even.  Its the coolest, and the sweetest tree of all of my life.  I'm honestly *this close* to tearing up about it.  I love it so, so much.  I am sad to think of a day when I will be in control of the Christmas Tree enough that my children's signatures wont be all over it.  I'm sure I'll enjoy it when that day does come, but I LOVE the phase we're in now.