Decking the Halls – My Mini Tree

I’ve had a frantically busy week with a To Do list that included things like: move four full bookcases to another wall, sort through and move all the toys from an upstairs bedroom to the basement, move the toy shelves to the basement, move the sewing desk to the bedroom and fabric storage to the basement, move my dresser to the Littles’ bedroom, move their dresser to the basement for game storage, move the yellow dresser to my bedroom, sort through all my clothes and donate everything that doesn’t fit, shampoo the rugs, move the pine shelf, etc, etc, etc.

I was trying so desperately to get the house in order so I could enjoy this week and the Thanksgiving holiday without thinking about house projects.  In comparison, yesterday was a blissfully easy day. The big thing on the very short list was to pick up our oldest son and his girlfriend from the airport. They’re home for a whole week! And this Mama’s heart is so happy.

I know it’s often frowned upon to start Christmas decorating before Thanksgiving, but this year it just feels so right. I’ve decided to do just a little bit of decorating each day rather than all at once, so last night I decided to start to pull out the beginnings of our holiday decorations – a little Christmas tree with ornaments I made when my oldest was a baby.

I was very young and very, very poor.  I didn’t have money for ornaments and though my family helped us out, I really wanted to do something on my own for Christmas.  I found a kit for these ornaments and it was something I could afford.  I remember sitting at night after Cate was asleep, stitching each tiny little ornament under a dim light, but my eyes were much younger then and it was easier.  One by one the finished ornaments were placed into a little bag because I didn’t have a tree to hang them on.

I was shopping with my mom one day and a store had a tiny angel ornament on sale, and with the purchase of the ornament you received a tiny tree.  I think my mom may have bought them for me, because I’m not even sure I had the money for the ornament.  But that miniature tree was the perfect size for my tiny ornaments, and the angel ornament was the perfect tree topper.

The little tree became one of my favorite parts of decorating for Christmas, but in recent years we haven’t had a place for my little tree and I’ve missed it. The buffet I moved to the dining room nook last week was the perfect spot. Silas helped me hang the tiny decorations and was really excited to put the angel on the top. “Look, Mama! It glows in the lights!” he said.

Do you decorate all at once or a little at a time? Do you have any favorite decoration memories?