Christmas Tree Question

What happens when you combine a 10ft. crooked-trunked, fully decorated Christmas tree, a rambunctious 7 month old Labradoodle and 2 young boys left unattended for a quick potty break?

A horizontal, fully UNDECORATED 10ft. tree that is impossible for a 5'6" woman to reseat in the stand!

Had to call Jeremy and have him come home during his lunch break to stand the tree back up. Took three days to fully, properly reseat and redecorate. Do you know how difficult it is to take pics of a lit Christmas tree without it looking.....well, just not right?

On the bright side of things, most of our light strands were broken and the lights we had didn't wrap the entire tree on the first go around, so it looked wonky. The re-do allowed me to go buy the blue lights I really wanted and use those. The kids think it looks like a million little fireflies live in the tree now.

I am so secretly anal about the tree decorating that the crash actually was a relief. It allowed for the warm family moment of decorating the tree together and the blissful, organized, precisely paced ornament and light redecoration in the quiet after-hours of bedtime!

It's a sickness ~ I know......

So, I have this thing about ornaments. Some people like perfectly themed trees...Pier One glass balls, all butterflies or all flowers, stuff like that. In the spirit of the holidays, I can't fathom how the "facade of perfection" wins out over the romantic nostalgia carefully chosen, annually bought ornaments offer. Sure, the tree looks like a mish-mash of ideas and hobbies, fleeting obsessions and "what the heck were we thinkings." But that mish-mash provides the kind of warm, familial "rememberies" that are strong enough to blanket any crazy cousin......

Here are a few of my favorite "rememberie" ornaments:

1. This was the ornament my grandparents gave me for my very first Christmas! It's held up pretty well, wouldn't you say?

2. This one was made by yours truly when I was in first grade. From what I remember, it was clay into a mold, kiln-baked, glazed and hand-painted! If this ever broke I think I would cry!

3. This was the first ornament Logan ever made. It was a project he and Jazzy did. We took pics on the beach, collected shells and here's the result! I love this silly thing!

4. Jeremy and I had this made our first Christmas together.

5. Logan's first Christmas

6. My mom makes such great ornaments!

7. Bought this one a couple days ago. Bird feathers - random, I know, but I thought it was really pretty.

Now, for your viewing pleasure....the mantle. Never had a mantle before. Fun to decorate....still have to put some pine garland across the top, though.

I searched FOREVER for the perfect nativity and finally found the dream one last year...on wicked clearance no less! The beauty of this is that each handcarved piece has a part of the Christmas story painted on it so that when all the pieces are together, the story of Christ's birth is perfectly displayed. LOVE IT!

Yes, that's a Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas to be precise.

Though the kids know there is no Santa Claus (why are we gonna let a fat, judgemental, only-works-one-night-a-year, stranger take credit for the gifts Jeremy worked so hard to provide?) we still celebrate the unbelievable truth of who Saint Nicholas was! Google it and you will be amazed at how many cultures have their own "Saint Nicholas" legend. One of the earliest and most well documented stories of the "true" Nicholas is a story of a pastor of a small town who loved his people greatly. One day, close to the holidays, he learned that one of the men in the town had three daughters and was not able to afford their dowries, thus forcing all of the daughters to remain unmarried, very unhappy spinsters. Nicholas' heart ached for the man and, on Christmas Eve, he stole away to the man's house with three small satchels. He opened the window and found, as was the custom in those days, the girls boots all lined up under the window. He dropped one satchel in each of the sets of boots and went back home. In the morning, the girls each found that the satchels contained exactly enough gold coins to cover their dowries! The joy that spread through the town as the people learned of the anonymous deed so touched Nicholas that each year after on Christmas Eve, he dressed in his finest robes and went around to all the houses in the town and delivered small presents through the open windows.

And so the legend grew! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!