Our First Christmas Tree

We bought the tree at Goodwill (of course), and it's a little flimsy, but it's still fun. I probably shouldn't have posted it yet, since the tree is not really all the way done... but I missed my blog. And, like an idiot, I didn't take any pictures at Thanksgiving with the Francises. (Hey Kim and Mel, how bad do you want to help a girl out with some sharing of some pics?...). Also, I couldn't wait to post pictures of our awesome star! Mike and I stayed up late last night rolling and gluing yellow paper around tiny little dowels to create a christmas miracle: We used this online tutorial. Notice the one and half strands of popcorn and fruit loop decorations that I got from "slave labor" Activity Night at the church!!! Actually, that particular activity night, the scout leader didn't show up, so I had all the little boys AND girls to myself, HA HA HA -- that was my evil laugh. We talked about how important traditions are, what some of their favorite traditions are, and then I told them that I remember going to help my aunt Dianna make this popcorn and fruit loop decoration when I was little, while we watched movies. And then we all did just that. It was a pretty fun activity, and I got to keep the decorations that nobody wanted for OUR tree. Yay!

So, I have to plop myself down in front of some good 90's 90210 on Netflix this week to finish the silly popcorn decorations, and also to make some special ornaments that I am really looking forward to. Mike told me that in his family, each year his mom gets each of her kids their own ornament. He says that it was really fun for him when Jean would put up the tree and unpack all of the old ornaments, that he would get to hang each of "his" yearly ornaments up one by one -- finding the perfect place for each one. When he was old enough he noticed how the styles and quality changed over the years. I thought that sounded like a really fun tradition -- so this year I am going to have to find or make two special 2008 ornaments, one for Mike and one for me. Better start our little collection now, right? Any ideas?