Merry Christmas!

We started a new tradition at my house this year: Our 1^st Annual Christmas-Tree-A-Day- Marathon. My 3-year-old son, Joey, and I decorated a different tree every day last week. I am excited to share our home with you today. We picked up ALL the Legos off the floor so this truly is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year around here.

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Monday: We were off to a great start finishing the first tree first thing in the morning before we even got dressed. That’s my assistant, Joey, in his dinosaur pajamas.

This white tree was my Single Girl Tree at my old townhouse in Sterling. I used to stay up all night decorating it with cobalt blue—and only cobalt blue—ornaments to match my blue and white kitchen. We’ve branched out to add more colors and have switched over to kid-friendly, shatter-proof ornaments (which really came in handy because we did drop a few). We put this tree in the living room this year next to a table loaded with all of our Santa Claus photos. They make me happy.

The beads on the bottom half of this tree (and the others) may look a little haphazard to you. I assure you each one was meticulously placed there.

“Look, Mommy!” Joey said proudly. “I did it!”

How could I possibly re-do it? 🙂

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Tuesday: This black tree also makes me happy. I found one on display at Walmart a few years ago, but they were sold out. I argued and argued with the manager, but he refused to sell me the display. I went all over. I searched on line. I could NOT find another black tree anywhere.

But my Mom and Dad did!

(My Mom is a little NUTS for Christmas trees too. You can read about her trees here.)

My parents brought the black tree over as a Christmas surprise and I love it because they found it for me—and it matches the black tile floor in my entryway. I usually decorate this one with silver and gold hearts and peace signs (Peace and Love, Baby!)

Joey had a different creative vision this year and insisted we add the turquoise peace sign ornaments. But, but … they don’t match! They’re BLUE! This tree is GOLD and SILVER.

He insisted. I acquiesced.

The turquoise peace signs are growing on me.

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Wednesday: Technically, this isn’t a Christmas tree. It is a crazy LED cherry tree that I also fell in love with one year. I keep it up year-round because it reminds me of the Washington, DC cherry blossoms and springtime, my favorite time of year. I pulled all of our pink ornaments together last year and started decorating this tree for Christmas. Again, the ornaments are a little bottom-heavy, but that’s as high as Joey could reach while standing on the chair! I really like how the lights and ornaments reflect in the display cases and the mirror.

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Thursday: We didn’t have a lot of room so we jammed our next tree in the corner next to our kitchen table. This red tree is another one from my Single Girl Days. I was a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician for 10 years before Joey was born. This red foil tree was perfect for my collection of firefighter-related ornaments.

One year I decided to do separate “fire” and “snowman” trees, but these little guys blew my mind.

Which tree should they go on?

Now we lump them all together here along with a nice collection of White House Ornaments and whatever else Joey wanted to put on here this year. He is teaching me to be less, um, particular about my trees and just go with the flow!

Isn’t that what the holidays are all about?

I’m still working on it.

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Friday: I had visions of a tree-trimming party straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. I would bake chocolate chip cookies for the occasion. We would sip hot chocolate from my snowman mugs. Our whole family would gather around this tree singing carols and decorating it.

Instead, Joey got sick. Then I did. We put up two tiny trees in the kitchen, but that’s about it.

We just weren’t feeling the tree vibe anymore by the time my husband, G, got home from work on Friday night. We watched TV instead.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday: We got the tree decorated—eventually. And we got a brand-new train to go around the tree after our old train broke. The old train is now the centerpiece on the table. (I really need to get a tablecloth.)

The new train cost $65. That’s what happens when you go train shopping with my Dad. He talks you into the most expensive one because he just knew Joey would love it. He was right, of course, but we had to roll up the rug in our dining room to make room for it! We don’t watch TV so much anymore. We watch that train go round and round instead. Joey LOVES it! That makes me happy.

This tree is my favorite. There’s no set theme.

It’s just us … our family’s story.

OK—so this one is just MY story!

* * *

But THIS! This is us!

We have ornaments commemorating big events in our life. (We have about 10 million “Baby’s First Christmas” ornaments, but only 1 kiddo!) Plus we have a lot of vintage German ornaments G brought to our marriage from his time stationed overseas (which you can also see in this photo).

We started collecting ornaments from places G and I visit together. Christmas ornaments make a great souvenir because they are easy to pack in a suitcase and they make a nice memory of fun trips. My Mom has an entire Travel Tree at her house.

This one is from our honeymoon cruise. I can go a whole year NOT thinking about our honeymoon cruise, but then I pull out this ornament and I remember.

And it makes me happy. Every year.

~ Courtney

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Our whole family here at All Things New Again wishes you and your loved ones …

and a whole lot of

this holiday season!

That’s another one of G’s ornaments. (I promised I would include it.)

Linksmu Kaledu: That’s Lithuanian for Merry Christmas!