on to a new year...

Whew... I can't believe the holidays are already over! We had such a great Christmas this year. I promise to post more about the holidays, but I am in a bit more reflective mood with this post.

Growing up I always remember my mom talking about when she put up the Christmas decorations she would think back on where she was and what was life like when she put them away the past Christmas. When she put the decorations away she always would then say how she would think about next Christmas and what will life be like when she gets them back out again. Well I am defintiely my mother's daughter because I now do the same. Last Christmas we had our first white Christmas in the mountains of Colorado. I couldn't believe this year I was putting up decorations in our old house here in Florida, but the familiarity felt good. As I took everything down and packed everything up I thought about what next Christmas will be like. For one, we will have a little girl in the house! I told Mark how I was thinking about the Christmas to come and asked him to imagine what life will be. He says, just to make me crazy, "Well we won't be living here! I see us living in Tuscany maybe growing olives." Ah what a dream, but I can not pack and move anytime soon! Just to summer in Colorado!!

I thought I would share with you some pictures of our tree. I feel like it is the one thing that really gets center stage at Christmas. I love at night when it is all lit up how magical it makes the house feel. I wish I could have one of the trees you see in magazines. Arfully decorating with the most beautiful ornaments that compliment the rest of the home's decor. I was looking through my mom's Better Homes and Gardens and saw many examples like this, but I don't know how families do it! I mean I know how they do it, but where are all there special ornaments, hand-made by little hands, given as gifts, or marking special life moments. I try to make our tree beautiful. Here is an overall shot. (Notice the tree topper? I will explain later.)

I actually worked for Potterybarn for a few years and collected many ornaments at awesome after Christmas sales.

But I can't keep our sentimental ornaments off the tree! I do have beautifull ornaments that my grandmother made. They are priceless to me.

We have some from Mark and my childhood,

one for my high school Scottish band I was a dancer for,

a few sports ornaments for Mark,

special ornaments given by very special people in our lives,

this one that always makes me laugh...

I was supposed to be preganant the Christmas of 2008, but Gavin had othe plans!

And now Gavin has his own ornaments. I absolutely LOVE this ornament given on his first Christmas just 11 days after has birth.

I try to aesthtically place everything together and finish off the tree with small red balls that I also got from Potterybarn. But even with all the thought in design our tree can't be perfect. I use these branches I bought from Potterybarn as garland.

Mark of course teases me about this, but I like the look.
The problem was the whole month they kept on sliding down the tree! I also kept on losing ornaments that were strategically palced by dogs (included my canine nephew Griffin!) and little hands that wanted to play with certain ornaments. Gavin LOVED playing with 3 bears I had on the tree.

They would even run errands with us.
He also loved playing with this truck that was Mark's ornament after his black truck he had through high school.

I actually just found it stuck somewhere AFTER Christmas. But the funniest thing of all was that our tree was so darn crooked this year!

We couldn't get it on the stand straight! Mark and I tried for HOURS one night. Let me tell you... it was NOT fun!!! We finally gave up and decided, like Charlie Brown, to love our crooked tree. I guess our tree represented our family well. We like to make things special and nice, but we are sentimental, love tradition, won't sacrfice living a fun life for perfection, and yeah... we may be a little off centered too!

I have to share with you too what my house looked like on Sunday morning.

I felt like this shepherd from our nativity scene who lost his head a couple years ago!

Ha ha... My friend Meredith helped me decorate for Christmas the year I was on bed rest. She dropped the poor guy as she was putting him on the shelf. I still keep him because he makes me laugh.

A tradition in my family was that after Christmas my sister and I could keep all of our new toys out unitl we went back to school in order to enjoy them. My parents always seemed excited to get the toys and decorations put away and I could never understand why! Now I know!!! Luckily, thanks to my mother-in-law for having a date day with my little guy I got everything put back.

What a differnce an afternoon without a toddler makes!! I got the last few things back in order today. Yay!

Like I said I promise to post more later! Happy New Year!!