Christmas Party, 2013!

Well it’s a week away! And I’ve finally started my shopping. My wallet is begging me to stop already. ;)

As I mentioned yesterday, this is the sixth year I’ve hosted this holiday linky party – I’ve done it since the first Christmas I was blogging. Awww. Pretty cool, I must say.

We have a total of four trees in the house – technically. The fourth is a small one I put in our bedroom, with intentions of decorating with DIY ornaments every year. I always run out of time. So we just use it as a pretty nightlight. :)

The other three are decorated though. The biggie is the 12 footer in our living room. But first things first -- I’ve had quite a few of you ask how week keep our cats out of the trees. Well…

  

We don’t. :) It’s something I’ve long since given up on. They don’t chew on anything, they just like being in there and playing with the ornaments. You may notice that the bottom of each of our trees is sparsely decorated and that’s not because I have a toddler who takes them off, but three cats instead. I gave up on trying to put them all back on about 25 ornaments ago. I’ll be finding them till next summer.

When I took those pics of our kitten in the tree I scooted him out and started taking pictures again…only to see the tree still moving. I then found another cat SLEEPING in the bows of the tree. Seriously. Sleeping.

Anyway, no good advice here. :) (Although a reader mentioned a thing you can get at the pet store that shoots a puff of air out and deters them from going under the tree – may have to try that.)

Let’s talk about the pretty stuff now!

I’ve always used gold and red on this tree but wanted to try something a little different this year. I’ve been thinking of trying a more “natural” look – but with a 12 foot tree there’s no way I’ll be able change it all out all in one year. So I started by adding a new color this year to see if I liked it – brown:

My sis was all, “Ewww. Brown??” And I was all, “Trust.”

Honestly I wasn’t sure how it would look either. I got a container of brown bulbs at Hobby Lobby for 40 percent off and then used a few larger sparkly ones I’ve had for years.

I stood back after we added some and actually quite loved it. It adds a kind of deepness to the tree – it’s hard to explain. It’s actually really pretty:

While at Hob Lob I also picked up a few packages of that tulle stuff – it’s sparkly and it comes in really wide nine foot sections. But I’ve always cut them up so they go further: 

That way I get three nine foot sections out of each one instead of one. They are still really full and fluffy.

OK, funny story about this monster tree. We got it a few years ago at Lowe’s – they still have it, it’s just more expensive now. I really do love the tree, it’s great quality and easy to assemble.

Soooo, we got a 12-footer because my husband wanted to. The man could care less about everything else I do in this house, but he wanted a huge tree. HE LOVES IT. I love it too but I feel like I’m risking my life to decorate the top. So a couple years ago we’re putting it together and accidentally put the second from the bottom section of the tree on the stand first, and it still looked great. It just wasn’t quite as tall and full at the bottom.

And when I say not as tall, I’m talking a foot shorter. But he really wanted the whole thing up so we fixed it, even though you seriously couldn’t even even tell! Fast forward to this year – my sister is helping me put the tree up since he was out of town and we did the same thing again – using the wrong bottom piece (I need to label these things) and I was kind of over it so I said let’s leave it. It’s still beautiful and tall and he won’t even notice.

Husband gets home a couple days later, looks at the tree, goes on with his business, then later we’re heading to dinner and out of nowhere he says, “Why is the tree smaller this year?” HOW? Then my stepdaughter came over a few days later, looks at the tree and asks, “Why does the tree look smaller this year?”

People. It’s still almost 12 feet tall. They both noticed. I just couldn’t believe they both noticed. I can’t tell to save my life. Hilarious! The man and daughter love the tall tree!

You’ll notice my furry friend nemesis in this shot:

Like I said. I do love the tree, really I do. It’s huge, and it’s spectacular:

We always put the “kid” tree upstairs – we have a lot of his/family ornaments on the big one too, but this tree is just dedicated to pure fun. We get a Hallmark ornament every year in July the fall:

     

That last one is my favorite – we found it this year and it’s PERFECT, since we went to Disney this year (the first trip for both my son and I). The castle is my favorite part of the park and it lights up and the fireworks go off on the ornament. It’s wonderful. :)

I’ve had a real tree every year of my life up until we got the beast a few years ago. There’s pros and cons to each one, real and fake, but overall I do like the fake for ease of use. But goodness, I missed the real tree smell. So we decided to do a (small) real one for the kiddo’s tree every year from now on.

We always go with a Frasier Fir, my absolute favorite:

Since it’s smaller I’m hoping the mess won’t be too bad. We’ll see about that. :)

Finally, I purchased a green flocked tree for our newly finished basement last year:

I fill it with white, blue and green ornaments and I LOVE it. I’m super happy with it – the flock doesn’t fall off like crazy and it’s just a beautiful tree overall. I got it from WalMart and I noticed they had them again earlier this year. I say it’s my favorite but they’re all my favorites, depending on my mood. :)

OK, now it’s time to see your homes/trees/decor/whatever! Everything goes this year, not just trees! Have fun and please visit and comment on a few of those linked up if you have the time.

If you are new to linky parties and would like to add a link, you’ll just want to go to the title of your blog post and “copy” it by right clicking on the title – then paste that code into the box that asks for the url. You are welcome to use my button in your post, or a link back is always appreciated.

Have a great one and enjoy!