Task 83 - Decorating for the Holiday's

Christmas is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love Christmas not because of the presents but because of the decorations and the twinkling lights. There is something about the effort people put in to decorating their homes that makes me smile. People picking out their trees as a family and loading them on the roofs of their car just puts me in a joyous mood. Admittedly I avoid the craziness of holiday shopping and try to get all that done long before the holiday rush descends on the malls. Shopping for gifts I think brings out the worst in people especially with strangers.

While I haven’t always put up decorations this year I started early. I hung my pair of 48” wreaths on my balcony but added garland and some supersized ornaments to appease the older folks in the building who told me that in years past they looked a tad provocative from the street. One of the more honest told me they looked like a pair of breasts.

I also set up my 4.5’ tree and covered it in ornaments my mom and dad got for me from the place where I work part time. They know how much I like them since I have mentioned them several times. I don’t want to know what they spent on all those handmade ornaments but it looks amazing. I added the bunch I picked up a last year on sale to make the tree look perfect. I will have to get some more this year when they go on clearance after the holidays so I can fill in the back of the tree since right now I only have ornaments on the 2 exposed sides.

My favorite ornament has to be my honu (green sea turtle) with his santa’s hat. I picked him up while in Hawaii and knew he would be a great addition to the tree. I always keep an eye out for unusual ornaments that will evoke memories from trips taken or people gone so that that they grace my tree and be part of the holidays with me.

The hardest part about decorating my smaller scaled tree was finding a tree topper that wasn’t too big for it. Apparently they don’t make tree toppers for smaller trees. I got lucky and came across a perfect star at the temporary Christmas store at the mall. I grossly overpaid since a friend of mine bought the same star except 3 times the size at Christmas Tree Shop for 1/10th the price.

While there I also found a great tree skirt to cover the driftwood stool I used to elevate the tree to make it a tad taller allowing me more room to stack up all the Christmas presents that will surely surround it this year. Most of them are already purchased and I just need to wrap , label and put a bow on them.\

I also set up two smaller trees to go on each side of my breakfast bar. I scored these trees for $5 each last year. They were display trees at the store and after the holidays’ they just wanted them gone. I used some of the small ornaments my grandmother’s gave to me to bring a little bit of her back into the season.

For my door I found the perfect wreath. My door has a dark wood veneer and most green wreaths just fad away and don't show very well but I found a white and gold wreath I thought would look perfect. After hanging it the lady across the hall from me commented on how beautiful she thought it was and asked where I got it. Ill take that as affirmation that he looked good.

I also pulled out my two stockings and hung them up. It will take some time to fill them up with goodies but no house is complete without a stocking or two.