O Christmas Tree

I'm running a bit late this year on my holiday blogs. Actually, I pretty much just scrapped every thought I had in that direction about three weeks ago.

I put up my tree just after Thanksgiving, like a good girl. I had everything ready and did the Advent with the kids just like I planned. However, my Soldier wasn't home, so a lot of the day to day stuff got chucked out in favor of surviving long enough as a good mother until he walked off the plane.

My usual white/silver/clear tree decorations changed a bit this year. In the past several years, I have had a themed decoration on the tree. You can see previous years' trees here and here. For my theme this year, I made some assemble-yourself gingerbread people. They added a splash of color as well as a child-friendly element of unbreakable-ness.

The gingerbread people will be recycled next year as gift tags, because I'm crafty and earth-responsible that way.

The new mingled with the old. We still have some of the first ornaments we ever bought back when we were newly married. Some are looking a little worse for wear, but they all come together nicely. Most of them are glass or at least very delicate and I hold my breath every year for the tragic possibilities of irreparable destruction.

Many of or shaped or special ornaments are symbols of Christmas.

Santa brings us a new ornament every year. This year, straying from the traditional symbol, he commemorated our first Christmas as an Army Family.

We are slowly collecting nativities. We've been fortunate thus far that only one set is horribly breakable. The other two sets can be handled by the kids with little worry of broken glass or porcelain. 

At the top of the Christmas Advent House, Santa watches the whole scene.

I do have pictures of Christmas morning. Those will be coming soon.

I hope you had a wonderful, warm and safe Christmas surrounded by those you love.

Merry Christmas!