trim up the tree with christmas stuff, like bingle balls and whofoo fluff.

i have been trying to share these photos all week, and blogger/picasa has not been playing nice. but finallyfinally i get to introduce you to my most favorite of Christmas decorations - our tree!  



 

Mark is apparently less than enthused.

 

kidding! Mark was actually very excited to help pick out Harold the Second, he just thought that he was not going to be in the picture with Harold (the second). see? much better. 

 

we drove home from the super festive parking lot/tree lot with Harold (the second) securely secured to the roof, feeling very Christmassey and festive and excited. at home, Mark set up Harold (the second) in his tree stand while i napped. and then he sat there just like that for an entire week. (Harold, not Mark) just a plain ol' pine tree, chillin in the living room. and let me just tell you, an undecorated Christmas tree is not very Christmassey - its really just kind of sad. i didnt even take any pictures of it, thats how sad it is.

 

so a week later, after i gave Harold (the second) plenty of time to settle and adjust to his new holiday home, (and also because i finally found 20 minutes of free time all in a row) it was time to decorate! our tree decorating routine is pretty standard: just colored lights, and our eclectic mish-mash of yearly ornaments that we have collected over the years. i accidentally bucked a tradition of opening our Christmas ornaments for the year on Christmas Eve - i was just so excited about putting them on the tree! we picked up this years' ornaments on our European travels. a mini-Eiffel Tower from France... 

...and a Venetian mask from Italy. neither of these were technically designed to be ornaments, but they were easily modified with a little bit of fishing line and sparkly silver cord. i love these because i think they're some of the best souveniers i have ever brought back from a trip. instead of being packed away forever in storage or lost and forgotten somewhere, these will get to be displayed every year and remind us of the awesome trip we took this year.

another super exciting thing on our tree this year: snowflakes! my mom crocheted me a set of my very own snowflakes, AND an angel tree topper. apparently i hinted last year that i might like some - i totally forgot that i ever said that, and was super surprised and excited when Mom pulled them out of her suitcase at Thanksgiving! they are wonderful and beautiful and they make my tree look fantastic and i love them and i know my sisters are super jealous so i'm not going to rave about them anymore. but just look how pretty!

 

wanna see Harold (the second) all decked out? of course you do. here he is in the daytime:

 

 

and here he is at nighttime:  

 

 

yup, its official: 'tis definitely the season for sitting in the dark living room just reveling in all of the magic and joy by the light of the tree.