It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's been about a week since we started putting up our Christmas decorations. We started the Saturday after Thanksgiving and finally finished this past Saturday. The tree took awhile because (1) it's new so we didn't know how many lights or what extra decorations we wanted and (2) it's really BIG! The tree that I had broke last year, when it fell over in Eric's apartment. So, we were blessed to be offered a nice tree from our church's music department. They bought some trees to decorate the church during the holiday season. However, the 8.5 foot trees they bought weren't big enough... yes weren't BIG enough. Crazy, huh?!? Anyway, they offered one to us and we were very thankful to use one since we didn't have one and didn't really need to spend 100s of dollars to buy a new one. However, we did spend some money on new lights. Eric wanted clear lights and I wanted colored lights. So we splurged a little and got both. I think we ended up putting 2300 lights on the tree. But it looks really good :) We also got some tinsel for the tree to add a little extra something. It's messy... but I think it adds a little sparkle. The only thing we haven't found is a lighted star. So we just used my old one. The bad thing is that you can't see it at night. Oh well... maybe next year. Here are some pictures of our decorating. As you can see, it was a few days process.

Eric unwrapping the bottom layer of the tree.

Eric & I stringing lights (we did it by sections)

Hanging ornaments

Eric hanging ornaments on the top of the tree
(that's a TALL tree)
Our newest ornament
(First Christmas in our new home)

Eric putting the star on top

Final results at night after the tinsel

For our mantel, we wanted to add a little Christmas touch. So when our family was here for Thanksgiving, my mom made us a swag out of the extra corkscrew willow branches we had. We bought some holly berries and ribbon at Hobby Lobby (for 50% off) to add to the swag. We put the holly berries in the swag and then I made the bow and attached it. It was the first time I've ever made a bow... so I think I did pretty good. We hung the swag up on the front of our mantel and hung our stockings on either side. We also got some red, green & white tapered candles to put on top of the mantel. Here's the final result.

My homemade bow

Our Christmas mantel decorations

With the fireplace (which we use quite often)

Merry Christmas everyone!