Monday, November 30, 2009

Holiday seeeeason

So, Thanksgiving was awesome, in a relaxing and low-key kind of way. The flying was easy (helped by our decision to travel on unpopular travel days, as well as Southwest's direct flight from Denver to North Carolina), it was great to see my parents, the meal was delicious, and the four days off of work were luxurious.

And NOW. Well, Thanksgiving is over and that means Christmas! Our first one in our new house. This is our third Christmas living together, and therefore the third time we've gotten a Christmas tree together, but this year we really pushed the boat out and also invested in a wreath for our door AND outdoor lights for our bushes.

And first of all, the wreath? We bought one of those $2 wreath hangers, and put it on our door, and were happy to see that it fit, but then when we hung the wreath on it we realized that the hanger was way too short, and the wreath was way too high up on the door. But I felt very crafty and creative because I took the twine we used to tie our Christmas tree to our car and tied it to the wreath hook and to the wreath and managed to hang the wreath just high enough to hide the twine, but still reasonably low. Behold:


And, um, I think I might wait on showing you the Christmas lights, because... well, it turns out that you need a lot more lights than you think you need to cover a couple of bushes. First we tried those net lights, but the claims on the box that there were enough lights to cover a six-foot shrub were blatantly false--one net literally only covered a fifth of the bush, and we have two bushes to light.

So, those went back to the store in favor of regular light strings, but of course we managed to inadvertently buy garland lights, which are really short strings with clusters of lights, so basically NOT what we needed, at all. We didn't really feel like a THIRD trip to Home Depot yesterday, so we just put the lights we did have on one of the bushes and left it at that. We still have part of one bush and all of the other one to cover before those will be ready for photographing. Unfortunately.

Anyway, onto the tree. Our ceilings aren't particularly high, but we got a bigger tree this year than we've had in past years, and actually invested in a tree topper for the first time. Again, as with last year, we decorated the tree with a football game on in the background, and again we forgot to get eggnog to commemorate the occasion.

However, we did manage to get the tree up and decorated. Growing up, Torsten always had a very traditional tree with white lights and just a few ornaments, while I had a crazy tree with multicolored lights and ornaments crammed on every branch. So, we have compromised with something of a middle ground: white lights, and colored ornaments, but only a few different colors (red, purple, silver, and a bit of gold) in order for the tree to have a cohesive feel. We're both happy with how it turned out:


It's a little weird to have set up the Christmas tree without Montana here. I kind of wonder what her reaction will be when we bring her home this week and she sees a giant tree in our living room. I can only hope that she doesn't instinctively decide to pee on it.

AND, in what can only be described as a true holiday miracle, we actually managed to find a menorah that we both like, and it only cost $25 and it's excellent quality silver (steel?). It is a lovely compromise between traditional (Torsten's preference) and modern (my preference). See?


Now all we need is an advent calendar with chocolate, and we'll be set for the season.

What about you? Will you be getting a tree this year, or have you already? How do you normally decorate it?

29 comments:

  1. We tag a tree every year at the Christmas tree farm down the street from our house. They dig it up for us and we put it up a few days before Christmas (if you want to replant the tree, it can't be indoors too long or the warmth causes it to come out of dormancy). Colored lights and lots of ornaments, from the cool and unique variety to the handmade by the kids variety. I don't think we have any plain balls at all anymore. Anyway, the tree stays up until New Year's Day, when we (having un-decorated the day before) plant it in an area of our yard where we've planted our previous trees. The kids call it Christmas Tree Land. One day I plan to run some underground conduit out there and then put lights on those trees every year (until they get too big).

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  2. I love your wreath and tree. Also the railing on your stairs is beautiful.

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  3. we have a fake tree that we shamefully leave set up (just upright, not with ornaments and such on it) all year. so, i need to haul that up. I need a bit of pine in my life though...the real kind, so usually, that entails getting a real weath. i usually set up the tree right after Thanksgiving, but i've been a bit slackerific...so it's not up yet

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  4. Blogger just ate my comment, so here is my attempt to re-create my previous genius:

    Our belongings won't have made the cross-country move to our shiny new house in WA by christmas, so I decided not to move there until after the new year. Husband will be coming to my parents' house instead. I am more excited than I thought I would be to have our "own" christmas in our house next year though.

    Did you and Torsten both grow up celebrating christmas and hannukah? That's pretty cool!

    To Fiona - that is AWESOME. I have not heard of anyone doing that, didn't know you could!

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  5. Everything is so lovely! I have a big fat crush on your front door (and the wreath just makes is better!). And I'm so distracted by the beautiful staircase in the tree photo that I wish I could invite myself over for coffee so I could poke around in person. (Aren't YOU glad that MN and CO are not next door neighbors!)

    Your tree is beautiful and simple and elegant! Well done!

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  6. I don't even think a regular tree could fit in my tiny apartment, so I will live vicariously through the pictures of others.

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  7. I'm always a little baffled when all of the Americans disappear from the internet for a week around Thanksgiving, and then come back talking about Christmas. Your country is weird.

    Despite the fact that I woke up with snow on the ground today in Montreal, it doesn't even feel remotely Christmasy yet. I'm not going to do any decorating here because I'm going to visit my family for half of December anyway. My parents will probably put a tree up around the 17th or 18th.

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  8. Love your tree. It's looks so perfect there by the stairs- it's like a Christmas card!
    And that menorah is SO. Gorgeous. I want to convert just to have one of my own. I LOVE it. Excellent compromise!

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  9. I love your wreath and tree, they look lovely. We went fake two years ago and B hasn't let me live it down. But it's SO easy - prelit with white lights.

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  10. Your tree is lovely! And I think we have the same star on ours.

    We decorated our tree with red lights, candy canes, and red and white striped ribbons.

    We put up multi-colored lights in our backyard and we had to make TWO trips to Target because of certain strands working when we plugged them in before hanging and then not working after we wrapped them around our columns and plugged them back in. Argh.

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  11. The lights thing drives me CRAZY, because THEN it says only to string three strings together. Which, what? Because the ONE shrub we decorate takes AT LEAST four strings to even look like we bothered to fling out a light or two. How many outlets do they think we HAVE outside?

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  12. Single city living is not conducive to putting up a tree, plus I'm lazy. I probably won't do any decorations this year. Once I'm more settled in I'll probably get more into decorating for the holidays but for now there doesn't seem to be any reason. My parents always buy a live tree and we plant it every year after Christmas. Now they have a line of Christmas trees of increasing heights along the back fence line. I love it--Christmas all year 'round!

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  13. Love love love your front door!

    We always go out and get a real tree. My fiance could care less (he rarely had a tree growing up) but I love all things Christmas and love to decorate :)

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  14. We have a fake tree, and we are putting it up tonight. I'm so excited! Last year things got too hectic, and we never put it up - it was sad...

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  15. we have an iddy bidy tree - and Blanca always watches us decorate it with a perplexed look on her face. SO FUNNY.

    But I love to be all cozy and comfy at home at night - with all my tree lights blinking at me ...

    LOVE Christmas, although I think I love Thanksgiving more ...

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  16. Wow, everything looks really lovely! I quite love your front door for some reason.

    This will be my first Christmas as a homeowner and although I'll be spending Christmas at my parents' place I'm going to buy myself a wee tree I think.

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  17. Your tree is lovely.

    You are absolutely right about it always taking more lights than you realize to decorate outside. It's a big scam, I think. Which is why I have two entire plastic bins full of lights. (me = sucker)

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  18. Love the decor! We have our trees set up already - one white with red ornaments and one with multicolored lights with a mish mash of ornaments and an incredibly tacky star.

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  19. We're putting up our tree next weekend probably and I'm looking forward to it even though it means we'll have to rearrange half the furniture in the living room again. Growing up I had one of those trees that was covered in wacky ornaments--there was no theme whatsoever and I really liked it. It was kind of like a 3-d timeline of my growing up and it was always fun to reminisce every year about where each ornament came from (or what grade it was made in).

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  20. My family has had a fake tree throughout my childhood, because my younger brother had severe allergies. I'm used to it, and I'll probably do the fake tree route too -- I have NO idea how to have a real one, and neither does my boyfriend.

    My family tree is decorated first with multi-coloured lights and our light-up Angel on the top. Then we cover it top to bottom in the most random smattering of ornaments you will have ever seen (ranging from super old ugly ones that belonged to my great-grandmother and my grandparents to ornaments from my childhood to newer stuff and the stuff we made in school growing up). Then we drape silver tinsel.

    Every year we step back from it and siiiiggghhh and say, "This is our Best Tree Yet".

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  21. Seeing your tree makes me want to get one. It's so pretty and festive!

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  22. Love your staircase, which I know isn't the point, BUT I DO!

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  23. Oh, your photos are lovely!

    I grew up with a Great Big Live Tree, so that is what I want. Unfortunately, if I put a Great Big Live Tree in my current living room, it would take up all the space that I currently, frivolously use to walk between the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, so that isn't the best idea.

    Last year, I think I just got a wreath. The year before, I put a medium-large tree in the office. This year, I'm going to try to get a small tree and put it on the trunk that serves me as a coffee table. We'll see how that works!

    As for decorations, I admire the white-lights-and-themed-ornaments look, but I go with the old ornaments from my childhood, and the strands of ribbon loops. Otherwise, it's not *my* tree.

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  24. Your decorations look lovely! I wish I had a house this time of year to do fun stuff like that. It's not the same in apartments.

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  25. Can I spend Christmas at your house?! Your tree looks absolutely gorgeous. I got the biggest grin on my face when I saw that picture!

    We're actually not having a tree this year because our apartment is so small, but I have TONS of decorations and lots of fake evergreen garland to string along everywhere. And I ordered my wreath from one of my best friend's kid's elementary school fundraiser, which I do every year. I must have that fresh evergreen scent!

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  26. Your tree and wreath are really really lovely. And I love that you and Torsten were able to compromise on the menorah. So unlike our house, where we will not be having a tree (Sweets doesn't want one) and I'm not even sure which box my menorah is hidden in. I'm pretty sure we'll be lucky if we get our wreath up by the 25th. hahaha.

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  27. Your tree is really pretty! We do the same kind of decor on ours -- white lights and either blue/silver or red/gold ornaments. I'm hoping we'll go get our tree this weekend. I love this time of year!

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  28. Your tree looks great. The past few years Tim and I have been in rented flats and just had a small fake tree with LEDs built in. It's very pretty (better than it sounds) but not nearly big enough for our very own full-sized house. We haven't yet decided whether to get a real tree or a bigger fake one but we definitely won't get built-in LEDs again because than you don't spend hours decorating it together, which is surely the whole point?!

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  29. WOW!!! So pretty, I still have to wait a long LONG time to get a tree like that.

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