The big tree reveal is here my friends!
It’s an aqua, white and silver tree for me this year! Usually, it’s just silver and white, but I decided to spice things up a bit this year.
I think putting up the tree is quite possibly my favorite thing I do all year. Topher puts up the tree and strings the lights (definitely not his favorite thing), and the unnamed child and I take over from there.
We play Christmas music and order a pizza (I know the pizza isn’t very Christmasy, but that’s just how we roll people).
I am getting a pretty extensive ornament collection, so it does take a while these days. I love pulling each one out of the box and remembering where and when we got it.
On every vacation, I try to get an ornament from where we visit. That’s not always easy to do if we travel out of season — finding a white/silver ornament in the Caribbean in April can be a bit of a challenge, but it seems like the ones that have a great story behind them (although they may get placed toward the back of the tree), tend to make me grin each year when I pull them out of the box.
You can’t see them very well, but three or four years ago, I found the penguin family under the tree. Topher thought I was insane, but they make me happy every year, and everyone always wants to know where I got them (Z Gallerie in case you were wondering). I remember how annoyed he was walking around Country Club Plaza in Kansas City carrying four glittery penguins while the kid and I shopped — that torture may have been in response to his “crazy” comment…
This year I was super excited to add to the woodland family (not the penguins are woodland … but ya know) with the fox family on the other side (they came from Pier One Imports). I’m keeping my eye on the fox’s since penguins aren’t known to run too fast. So far we have had zero casualties, thank goodness!
My Easy Button Ornament is down below!
Do you see my Marilyn Monroe ornament? I found her at a yard sale this summer!
In the center of this photo, there’s a wonderfully sweet nativity scene made from paper mache.
The ornament on the left is the sea turtle we got at the sea turtle rehabilitation center in Grand Cayman and the one on the right we picked-up on our most recent trip to St. Kitts.
Kitten also gets super excited as soon as the tree goes up. Her favorite hiding spot is under the tree. Too bad every single year she pukes … right in the middle of my tree skirt.
Our cat Baxter that passed away last year loved to climb the tree. The vet used to tell us to squirt him with a water bottle when he did it. He was a Norwegian Forrest Cat and had massively thick hair, created to be snowproof, so water would just bead-up and roll-off. We would squirt him as he was halfway up the tree and he would look at us like “So?”, and purr at us from four feet up the tree. Didn’t phase him a bit.
That’s what Christmas is all about, remembering all of the special times we have had with loved one throughout the years.
This will be our first Christmas for my family since my aunt passed away in September. We will all have that heavy in our hearts, but we have so many wonderful memories of her and that will help us ease the pain.
This will also be our first Christmas with my wonderful new niece, and even though we’ll miss Diane intensely, we are all SUPER excited about hanging out with Baby B for the day. (Like I need another excuse to shop for baby things.)
I’m still working on my Christmas mantle and my buffet. With being gone for 10 days in November, I am so behind this year.
Hopefully it will all come together and I can give you a Christmas Tour!
It is gorgeous!!!! Love it Merry Christmas my friend. Please tell me you shared this at the hop today. xo
beautiful tree, and filled with so many wonderful memories, I think that is the best part of decorating the tree, when you collect ornaments every time you put one on the tree it brings back a special memory
What a beautiful tree! Merry Christmas! Hugs, Leena
Beautiful!! I love that you have a story behind each ornament. I do the same thing. Love the penguins and the foxes!!
Love it!! The turquoise gives it a nice pop! I love the penguin and fox family. I do several trees, but this year just the little tree with all the silver, clear, white ornaments on it. Next year, once our house is finished, I will go crazy as usual!! Merry Christmas.
It’s beautiful, Shanna. What great mementos and stories to go along. That is what makes the whole task well worth it!!
What Did The Fox Say?? Those penguins and foxes…..ideal
Not to mention stories of the ornaments! Cannot wait for the tour!
Oh this is Absolutely LOVELY!!!! The colors are stunning!! Thank you so much for sharing it with us at our Christmas Extravaganza Party!! Pinning 🙂 xoxo
Thank you for hosting! Have a Happy New Year!
What blue color are the walls painted? LOVE IT!!