With finals now over, Neil and I finally got a chance to put up our tree. And it took all of…twenty minutes. Being that we’re persistently nomadic for the time being (I’ve moved at least once a year since 2000) and currently renting in the hopes of swapping states in the coming year, we’ve opted again not to get full-sized or even a small-ish tree. We’ve made the sacrifice in an attempt to minimize stuff we’ll have to move and in doing so have staved off a lot of deco all-around over the years. While that might seem kind of gloomy, we’ve managed to find little ways to decorate and celebrate the season that don’t take up a lot of room.
Neil carefully wraps our oversized lights on the tree. It makes it so adorable!
Last year we picked up a tiny table-top tree (or shrub, as it’s identical to a real ornamental shrub we have in front of the house) and put a few of our favorite ornaments on it, mostly photo ornaments of us and the pets. We also rotate out a few of the yearly ornaments I have received from my aunt since I was a little girl. I have collected over 100 ornaments, ready for whenever we finally get a forever-tree.
The newest additions to our collection from my aunt, twin snowmen. She buys ornaments in pairs since I got married, so every year we’re excited to see what our matching ornaments will be. I have the best aunts!
Our newest family member gets his first ornament on the tree.
Felix’s close-up Suess-ish ornament.
Even in Christmas ornament form, Libby gives us the stink eye.
Another first-time ornament, a beautiful Scandanavian bell from Anja’s mother Donna, who is by far and away one of the best Christmas decorators in existence. She also gave me a miniature nativity ornament, but it’s too heavy to hang so it sits on my baker’s shelf during the holidays.
And finally, since I’m allergic to sap and can’t have a cut evergreen within a mere 50 feet of me (believe me, I felt like I had killed Christmas for my whole family for several years), I found amazing evergreen incense cones to burn that make my whole house smell of forest. And when I say whole house, I mean my underwear smells like trees.
What are your decorating traditions during the holidays?
I love your animal ornaments – especially Clive’s! I need to start doing that. We’ve never had a tree in the six years Nathan and I have lived together, but this year we got a tabletop rosemary bush – it looks a lot like yours. Is that what you have? Our apartment is small and I’m afraid Calvin would destroy anything he could reach.
Ours is just a synthetic table top tree, but a shaped rosemary would work perfectly. They used to carry those at the hardware store I worked at and the smell was like WOH phenomenal!