Every year I love getting our Christmas tree.  I love the fresh smell of Christmas it brings into the house, and picking it out among the others on the Christmas tree lot.  Finding one that fills the space, but isn’t too tall for our ceiling.

Well like I mentioned last week, we had ice-mageddon last weekend so my plans to spend Saturday picking out and decorating our tree were thwarted.  However I did convince my loving husband to trek out in the ice on Sunday afternoon to pick out a tree.  It was FREEZING and we had to knock about 3 inches of ice off the top of his car to secure the tree, but we found the perfect tree and figured that a couple of days in the garage would melt all the ice off.  (BTW… 2 days… not enough time, we were still picking chunks of ice off after we brought it into the house Monday night.

But after the ice melted, and the tree was decorated, it was beautiful! For some reason it never feels quite like Christmas until my tree is up and decorated.  But enough talking… want to see my tree?

I had been borrowing a tree skirt for the past few years, but that person wanted it back, so I happily obliged.  Especially after I saw this tree stand from Crate and Barrel.  (we bought it this season, but I can’t find it on their website, so maybe they are out?)  I love the clean/rustic look of it.  And it leaves plenty of room for presents!   PS… don’t mind the pine needles on the floor.  It is impossible to keep them all swept up.

Our tree is mostly red and silver ornaments that I’ve gotten from my grandmother’s basement, or picked up along the way.  But I have two ornaments, well one is really a set of ornaments, that are my favorites.  The first  is a set of six silver round balls that say wishes on the front of them… you can barely see the word on the picture below.

But they open up and you can put strips of paper inside that hold your wishes every year.  I got these as a present from my sister-in-law a few years ago and it is always really neat to open it up the next year and see if my wishes have come true.  Some have, some haven’t, but it is always a neat experience to get a peak inside my head from a year ago.

Now that I’m married, my husband and I do this together at the end of our tree decorating and those 6 are the last ornaments to be put on the tree.  I’ve also been writing the year on the back of the strips of paper and keeping them all in a plastic baggie… I think in a few years I’ll enjoy looking back at what my wishes were a few years ago.

They don’t sell the same set, but they have a set of stars now, check them out at Red Envelope.

My other favorite ornament is one my mother found and modified.  I have mentioned it before, but I work for my family’s construction company as my day job.  For as long as I can remember our job superintendents have driven Red Chevy (or GMC) trucks.  So when we have our company meeting, there is truly a fleet or red pickups in the parking lot.

One year for Christmas my mom found a hallmark ornament that was a red pickup truck and cut out one of our logos and glued it to the side.  I love seeing this ornament front and center on my tree.  It reminds me of the gift my family’s company is and how much I enjoy being in a business so full of history and tradition and so intricately intertwined with my family.

Next to the tree is our fireplace and we hung our stockings there with care.  (or I did… the husband doesn’t love to decorate and I’m perfectly fine getting to make it look like I want it to!) If you are keeping track, this means I have checked another thing off my 30 Before 30 list… I bought the husband and I real stockings!

And after I sent my mom a picture of my mantle, this is how the conversation went:

Mom: You have a nutcracker?

Me: Yes, you sent it down in the box with all my Christmas decorations from your house.

Mom: That’s not yours… that’s AJ’s (my brother).

Me: Ummmmm… can we not tell him that until AFTER Christmas?

So SHHHHH… no telling him that I’ve kidnapped one of his Christmas decorations.  I promise I’ll give it back after this year, but look how cute he looks on my mantle!!

And one last picture of my tree all lit up at night:

I love sitting in the dark at night and watching the lights twinkle on the tree.

What about you? What makes you feel like it is truly Christmastime?