As empty nesters, and even though we don’t get many family visitors with everyone busy this time of the year, we still decorate for Christmas.
Mister puts outside lights up at the beginning of December, which by the way look great. This year he added a nice touch of extras where we can enjoy them from inside.
I love to start my days in a room lit by colorful tree lights.
No radio, no TV, the only noise the rhythmic ticking clocks. Which can be a choir if all six analog have batteries, but three currently don’t. The fridge and deep freeze’s unique chatters and moans chime in once-in-awhile, and the furnace’s comforting hum comes on when it’s time to take out the chill. Unless I’m thinking about these sounds they fade into the background and aren’t unsettling.
Has anyone noticed that weather affects the sound a clock makes? There’s one in our kitchen that gets louder when it’s cold outside.
Anyway, back to tree lights. With hot coffee at my side (and 2 cookies, I know bad habit,) I read or write, glancing up occasionally hoping to catch a beautiful sunrise through the window behind the tree.
We no longer put up a real tree to decorate inside, like we did when the kids were young. Our tall, slim artificial one fits our smaller living space and is a showcase of treasured memories. Most ornaments are handmade or ones we’ve bought during travels.
I admire beautiful themed trees, or those done in one color, yet ours is the opposite. Red, green and silver are my favorite Christmas colors, but our tree shines and glitters with multi colors and a variety of ornaments. The main reason is simple. It makes me happy, because it reminds me of the trees we had growing up.
So there’s a glimpse at what little things bring my December mornings peace and pleasure.
I hope you have a way to start every day with joy, that you will have the Christmas season you hope for, and that 2018 is kind.
Do you do themed, one color, or multi-colored Christmas decorating?
Do you collect tree ornaments from travel spots?
kathy knull 
With our three cats around a Christmas tree is sadly banned. 😹
So i love seeing photos of ones. 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed the picture. Sometimes a tree just isn’t practical. 🙂
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Yep especially with an oriental boy in the house that things EVERYTHING is his toy
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Your tree is beautiful! We don’t collect ornaments from our travels, but my daughter does. And she displays them on a special ornament tree on her dining room table.
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Thank you. Good for your daughter. 🙂 I bet that makes a great table display.
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Merry Christmas Kathy! Your tree is so pretty 🙂
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Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you. Hope you’re not too sore from climbing and can enjoy. 🙂
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I have done themed trees in the past – usually out of necessity. Our dog passed and now we can get out all the precious ornaments since he was nicknamed “the destroyer”. He was generally a good dog but took great exception to anything hanging on the tree – it had to be removed and destroyed. We had 2 themes that we alternated that were “dog proof” – ribbon tree hung with a variety of cloth bows, and the plastic icicle tree hung with lots of cheap and nearly indestructible icicles. Now my tree has all the ornaments from the kids (hand made usually in school), ones we received as gifts, some that have been passed down from parents and grandparents, and a few that were purchased a reminders of places we’ve traveled.
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Sorry to hear about your dogs passing. 😦 Sounds like you were smart to tuck away the precious ornaments rather than being mad if something happened to them. Your tree sounds like it’s decorated with love like ours. 🙂
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My ornaments are all dogs and cats. I think they’re cute, and I don’t know anyone else who has a cat angel as a tree topper
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Sounds cute. For me it’s all about the enjoyment you get looking at the tree. 🙂
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Agreed! 🎄
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I can pick up my tree with one hand, fully decorated, and carry it to storage every year. It is a hodge podge of child made things, randomly received and purchased things. And has no rhyme or reason to it. But it’s perfect . 🙂 Just like this post.
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That’s handy, and a tree of meaning doesn’t need to be big. 🙂
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Some people don’t get it. But our house is VERY small. And YOU are right. The meaning isn’t lost on me at all when I sit here in the evening with the lights on….remembering and smiling. 🙂
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Little is sometimes better, (I’m short LOL) 🙂 Before we got our current tree we used one that is about 18” tall with battery lights. 🙂
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Perfect 🙂
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We have scaled down considerably. The live tree era is long gone but we’ve also gone from a 7-1/2″ artificial to a 6′ to a 4-1/2′ (last year). We permanently decorated the tree and can cover it to store. It’s made decorating so much easier. Passages in life. Even the Christmas tree has passages.
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Our 6’ tree seems tall because I’m short. 🙂 That’s handy being able to keep your tree decorated, that’s Mister’s dream but we don’t have the space. The most time consuming part of our tree is getting branches all pulled back into place because it’s box is small and we have to cram it in there. 🙂
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