28 Happy Holidays: The Christmas Tree and a Ripple Effect

Today's post is a little bit of this and that.  A small tangent post if you will.  It's been awhile since one of those hasn't it?  It's mainly about our Christmas tree, but it comes with some more live time house updates as well!

I know that you may be thirsty for organizing projects galore, and trust me, I itch when I go a week or two without organizing anything.  In fact, the chances of that happening are quite slim.  Except during the holidays.  I am so busy getting my house in tip top shape, planning events and gifts, attending holiday programs, writing out holiday cards and decking the halls, that organizing moves down on the list a smidge.  Plus, it's important to me to be spending time with the family through it all, since I know how the holidays can become too crazy and that just isn't fair to the littles.  It's supposed to be a time of happiness and joy and not about hustle and bustle.

So far in our little holiday edition I have created a card display:

And a little dining room holiday display:

So where is the Christmas Tree?

Well, if you check in on our family blog at all, you may have seen that we picked up our Christmas tree last weekend.

We got it home and realized that it was a little on the big side...

We get a real one every year.  It's tradition.  And I LOVE the smell.  I have always gotten a real tree since I was a little lady, and I just haven't been able to make the switch to artificial...  And I love that my 5 year old thinks he knows the difference between a Fraser and a Balsam....

But, it was what it was.  And although it would be trimmed down a little bit, it wasn't going to shrink.  We just needed to be smart about how we were going to use our living space with a GIANT tree in the room.

Here is what we had started out with on the other side of the room:

If you have been following for awhile now, when the lower level flooded, we brought up our giant sectional, since it provided more seating than our previous couch did.  It's been working OK in the interim, sure, it's huge, but it's great to have the seating space!

But huge couch and huge tree don't agree with one another.

So even though the family room in the lower level still needs some trim work finished up, we decided to switch the couches back around to make room for the Christmas tree.

Here is the after of the ripple effect, and how it will probably remain moving forward:

The space really opened up by removing the large, dark and heavy piece of furniture.  Everything fits so much better now. 

What's funny to look at now is how the room looked just before the flood....

Those built-ins really just made such a happy difference in our home.  I still smile everyday because of them!

See, told you, tangent....

Here is a view of the room looking back at the tree, all decked out!

Notice, I stuck with the same theme as I did for the holiday display in the adjoining dining area.  Lots and lots of color.  I am a color addict.

For as much as I love a good arts and crafts session, I just didn't go that route with the tree this year.  Remember, I am trying to manage my time.  And crafting for the tree didn't make the cut.  But decorating the tree with the kids did.  As in, they pretty much did it all, I did the top with a stool, but they managed the lower level.  They were good color clumpers.

We just used inexpensive and unbreakable shatterproof ornaments that had lots of bling to them:

I did put a couple of glass ones up higher... just because I loved them so!

For those looking for an inexpensive gift idea.  I wanted to share one of my most favorite Christmas presents ever.  My bff snuck my kids away one day and had them make me ornaments.  She painted their hands white, and stamped them onto a bulb.  Once the paint dried, she turned their teeny tiny fingers into little snowmen, and wrote their name and date on the back.  Melt. My. Heart. 

Try not to cry after receiving that gift.  Not possible.

And some pretty tree topping ribbon finished it off...

So there you have it.  Our holiday decor and more home progress, thanks to a little Christmas tree push. 

Anyone else get their tree home and realize that your eyes may have been bigger than your room?  How did you handle it?  Or lets chat about hand made gifts that brought you to happy tears!  What are the best tear jerking gifts to give?