Ahhh......December. You busy month, you. So very fun and full of activities & excitement & magic. How can I feel so happy & trampled all at once by you?
We moved into our house right before all the decorating for the holidays began, and I must say my decor is a little ho-hum this year because, as a matter of fact, I had just figured out where I wanted everything to go that is part of our
everyday life. And shifting that and messing with it didn't sound too appealing. But guess what?! I put up lights outside and the wild tangle of cords you can see in the day disappear in the dark of the night and the lights look beautiful to me and make me happy.
We made homemade ornaments this year. Because they're my favorite and they make the house smell delicious baking and drying out in the hot oven.
They are still not all on our little "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree yet. I kind of love that tree. A little girl came over to our house last week and stood awhile staring at it. She finally said, "That's a really small tree. Our tree is big." It made me giggle looking at it with her. She was probably wondering what the blazes is going on with it!!! It is half decorated. At night it looks nice when the lights are on. Who doesn't love lights? But during the day, you can tell that we don't have all the ornaments on yet (they haven't all been strung) and their placement is pretty random.
The first year we got married, we lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in Midvale. I wanted a fresh-cut Christmas tree BAD and I was insistent and thought it was the only proper way to do things. So we took Clay's little green truck and cut one down and brought it home with us. I ended up putting it up by myself. That's no easy task trying to balance a sappy prickly tree while you try to screw the little tree stand into it to hold it right. It ended up crooked and that was just how it was going to have to stay. We never did that again.
The next year, we lived in another one-bedroom apartment in Salt Lake and were just weeks away from having our very first baby. I hung lights around all the windows and floated cranberries in water with candles and put up a Christmas tree I found at Target for $10. Ahhh yes, now you can picture the tree I'm talking about. :) Everything was magically lit up with with sparkly lights. Clay and I cuddled on the couch we got from a car dealership(?) and I had sewn slipcovers for with my sweet mom. And we were excited about Christmas and our house looked Christmasy.
Then that tree went with us to our 3 bedroom condo in Magna way up high on the 3rd floor and stood in the corner of our family room where my little almost one-year old baby was set down to look at his presents, without a clue what to do with them. And we laughed and unwrapped them for him.
In the little 2 bedroom yellow house down the dirt lane in Draper, it stood in our front window. That year I tied little ribbons on it from all different fabric. Brandt tried to help Brooklyn with her presents and we watched the snow fall out the big windows by the tree.
It was perfect for our house in West Valley. It fit right in the little bay window area in the front room because it's so short. The first year we were there, a glass ornament was pulled from the tree and ended up in Brooklyn's bare foot and called for an emergency room visit.
And sometimes I've gotten upset at that tree when I've retrieved it from it's storage box and taken it out and set it up myself every year. Upset that it wasn't
. Wasn't what I
it should be. Upset that when I was through putting it together, that the color codes could clearly be seen through its sparse branches.
That tree is rough times Clay & I have made it through together. That tree is a reminder that understanding each other comes with time and an open heart. That tree reminds me that I'm a strong person and that I can do hard things. That tree is part of my memories with my little babies and then children understanding, finally, that Christmas morning is one dang exciting morning where they can't wait to see what Santa left them under that tree. That tree takes me back to snuggling on a second hand couch & smiling. It reminds me that being creative is really fun even if you're forced to because you have no other options. And I'm not at all bothered anymore to put it up alone. I put it up with a smile in my heart and a smile on my face.
So now that tree looks a little dwarfed in our new front room and kind of silly, if we're going to be completely honest. But it makes me very very happy. And when it's all lit up at night, that thing is
to us.
He was pacing for hours before it came.
(His "I am smiling" face.)
(My "focus on not crinkling your nose & Clay, please don't drop my camera" face.) 
