A red and gold Christmas tree

I don't think it is any secret that I love Christmas trees.

I have 5 christmas trees in my house that are over 5 feet tall and 2 that are under 4 feet tall.  Most are decorated, all have lights. 

About 6 years ago, I was shopping at an outlet store after christmas.  I wasn't looking for a new tree but they just happened to have their trees on clearance.  Well, just the sign clearance, is enough for me to stop and take a look.  I came home that day with a 10 foot christmas tree.

Now, if I lived in any other house, I would've had to leave it in the store. But because my house has a 2-story family room, then I can have a 10-foot christmas tree.  YES!!!!

I can't remember if I put it up that year in all my excitement or if I waited until the next year.  Anyway, it has become my "formal" red and gold Christmas tree.  Most of the ornaments on it belonged to my grandmother.  Up until this year we had red and green lights on it.  When we got the lights out this year, 4 of the strands didn't work. 

So, off to Target we went in search of new lights. 

With a tree of this size, you can't just get by with 2 or 3 strands.  No!! This tree takes 6 strands of lights.  $60 in lights, they better last forever.

Instead of doing the red and green lights again, I decided that I wanted to go with all red.  Hubby thought it might be too much red.  But I ask you, " Is their such thing as too much red?" 

So here is my tree:

This picture makes the tree look really bare to me.  Guess I need to do some after Christmas ornament shopping.

As I mentioned most of the ornaments belonged to my grandmother. 

We also have a large french horn just like this one.  I don't hang it on the tree but my daughter uses it as a real french horn.  She will come home from school and "play" christmas songs on it.  We are not sure why, but she always has.  She loves it though.

I also added in some new ornaments.  Red and gold of course:

Here is the tree at night.  It's really hard to see how pretty it is in the picture. Trust me though, it's very pretty at night.

Since we have gotten the tree, we haven't had anything on the top.  We wanted to put a star up there but knew that it just couldn't be any star.  It had to be the right size and the right color.  Because the tree is so tall, we didn't want to get a little star because it would get lost and just look funny.

When we put it up this year we still didn't have anything for the top.  I have looked at all the stores and nothing jumped out at me.

This is the very top of the poor tree saying "put something up here"

 How sad.....



So just recently I relearned how to make bows.  They are nothing fancy, but they serve their purpose.  I knew how to make them when I was in high school but have forgotten since then.   I mean, that was so long ago.

So I watched this video tutorial recently and it all came back to me.

I went to my favorite craft store and got a big spool of ribbon with the intent of making a bow for my tree.  I have seen other trees with big bows on top and they look great.

Almost finished.  I want it to have long flowing ribbons to hang down the tree.

The finished bow. 

Not too bad, now to get someone to hang it for me.

Oh yea, that's what hubby is for.... and in the middle of the Falcons game no less.

Done!!  Yea, I think it looks great.  And now my tree can be very happy with the top covered.



Sorry about the light shining on the top of this picture.  No matter what angle I tried to take the picture from, the light was shining in those windows.

A Christmas Cookie Trial

Today I was introduced to a blog called The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle.  I just fell in love with the creations over there.  So much so that I was on her blog almost all day. 

I did take some time off to go to my sons basketball game, but after that, I was learning how to make really great looking sugar cookies.

Now, mine don't look anything like the ones over at The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle but this was my first time.

My kids and I always make sugar cookies at Christmas and I usually make a batch of my Buttercream frosting and let them decorate the cookies. 

They always enjoy it and I let them have complete control over the decorating.

This year, however; I may be taking the control back from them.  I had so much fun making and decorating cookies today. 

I have taken a cake decorating class before so I am no stranger to royal icing but it never dawned on me to use it to decorate cookies. 

So after I baked a batch and got my icing mixed and colored:

I got busy decorating the cookies according to my newfound knowledge from the blog world.

I first started by piping an outline on all the cookies.

I then thinned the icing down a bit to "flood" the inside of the outline.

{I left some with just the plain outline for my hubby who doesn't like icing on his cookies.}  I don't know where he gets that from!!

Once the cookies dried for about an hour then I got to start decorating them.  This is where I had the most fun.  Once I got the hang of it; it went really quickly.

I will have to hit the craft store very soon to pick up some more icing colors as I plan to be making more of these cookies.

I'm pretty pleased with myself for my first time.  :)

I hope you will check out the blog above and try your hand at decorating sugar cookies.  If you do, please let me know how yours turn out.

A Turner Thanksgiving

I just realized yesterday that I never posted my Thanksgiving pictures.  How in the world I got to be 3 weeks behind is beyond me.

Anyway; without further ado..... I would like to share our Thanksgiving with you.

When the kids were younger we would pack everyone into the car, even the dog, and head to Ohio to see family.  As they have gotten older, and I know this sounds ridiculous, they have become increasingly more difficult to travel with.  They just can't seem to get along so spending 9 hours confined in a car with them completely turns me off.

So, with that being said, we spent Thanksgiving in Georgia.  It's warmer here anyway.

I was excited to use my new dining room set too.  I always break out the good china for holidays.  I think it's important that the kids learn to eat like "adults" and use good manners.  {I try anyway}

I set out all the silverware whether we will be using all of the pieces or not.

I have been looking for these salt and pepper shakers all over the state.  I finally have collected 5 sets of them.  I would like to get one more set, but 5 was plenty for us.  Everybody got to have their own salt and pepper at their place setting.  No more reaching across other people to get the salt.

The front glass is called a "Boopie" glass.  At least that's what I was old.  They belonged to my grandmother and I use them only during holidays.

The gold silverware also belonged to my grandmother.  My mother had these pieces for a long time until I claimed them one year when we were up there.

My dining room table centerpiece.

After breakfast I make some appetizers.  I always make a Dried Beef Cheese ball for my hubby.  This year I also set out some cheese and crackers.  We snack on these things until dinner is ready at 3pm.  Why 3pm?  I don't know, it's just the time I chose for us to sit down and eat. 

Everyone gets their "Thanksgiving Gift".  It's at their place setting and we open them before dinner.





We always get the same thing..... A Christmas tree decoration.  It's fun to see what everyone gets each year and it adds to the decorations for the kids tree.  It's become a family tradition and one that we all look forward to.

After opening their gifts it's fine to eat.  I hadn't cooked a turkey in about 10 years so my turkey last year didn't look very good.  This years turkey, I thought, looked great.  More importantly, it tasted great.  I usually do very traditional side dishes; stuffing, mashed potatoes etc....  I really couldn't stand the thought of having stuffing this year.  It just didn't sound good to me.  So instead of stuffing, we had Scalloped Potatoes with Creme Fraiche; Paula Deen's Corn Casserole, which is out of this world, and I made mashed potatoes for the little guy.  It's tough having such a picky eater.


Here's the turkey:

Yum!!

And then the scalloped potatoes and corn casserole:

We also had dinner rolls, cranberry sauce and some desserts.  When their is only 5 eating, you don't have to make much.  We had plenty of leftovers.

We finally get to carve the turkey, which is hubby's job:

And everyone got to enjoy their dinner.  At least I think they did, they didn't complain too much.

Better run so I can start editing my Christmas decorating photos.  Don't want to be 3 weeks late getting those posted.

Friends

In light of the Christmas season,

the dog and cat decided they would get along

during nap time so they could both have a spot on a comfy couch

I'm just glad this didn't end with a big chase and the Christmas tree being knocked over.



Let me introduce you to some of my snowmen....

I love, love, love snowmen!!

ALL snowmen!

I wish that I could bring them all home to live with us, but I just don't have the space for them all.

Ok, maybe that's a bit much but I really do love them.  They are so round and soft and cute.

I have finally finished decorating for Christmas; it only took me an entire week this year.  Including having to buy all new lights for our 10 foot christmas tree.  Wasn't counting on that one.

I will take pictures of all my Christmas decorations and post them soon but for now; I would like to share some of my snowmen.


This ornament is one of my favorite.  I got it last year for Thanksgiving.  We all get an ornament at Thanksgiving - wrapped and sitting at our place at the table.

 This is my St. Simons Island snowsandman....  We have been going to St. Simons Island for the past 3 summers and I always come home with a new Christmas ornament.

 My momma found me this little tea set.  I just think it is the cutest.

 This guy uses those scented oils.  I currently have Vanilla scent and it makes my house smell so yummy.

This guy is fiber optic.  My kids think he is so cool.

And what Christmas table wouldn't be complete without snowmen salt and pepper shakers?

I hope you have enjoyed my snowmen.  Like I said; I will take pictures of this years decorations and post them soon.

Until then...


Merry Christmas!
Nancy