So Many Christmas Trees

To say I have a lot of Christmas trees in my house is kind of an understatement. I actually have a LOT of ornaments and decorations too. I am extremely sentimental and all my decorations have some sort of meaning, so they all have to come out each year. And Bri loves lots of decorations too. So, it takes me a long time to get it all up and quite a while to get it all down too.

We always put up a live tree in our formal living room. I love live trees. I believe they are much harder to decorate (flimsy branches can make it hard to put ornaments on), but I still love having one. 

We bought trees from Pikes the last several years and they have been great. Except for this year. We went to Pikes right after Thanksgiving and their trees were a hot mess. Lots of dead needles on the trees. Most were weirdly-shaped with lots of holes. Just look at the one behind Bri in this photo to the right...

I walked around and around and around trying to find one but couldn't. We decided to leave and try a new spot. I remembered a particular tree lot that I used to pass by over the years but never stopped...

The trees were beautiful...

We walked around a long time and picked one...

Bri posing with the inflatable Santa and wooden reindeer...

We were a bit worried the tree would be too tall for the room, but it was perfect...

A couple of days later, I started stringing lights. Mei Mei loves "helping" me with the lights...

The next day, I took out my (literally) hundreds of ornaments and decorated the tree. It is a huge undertaking and I actually do this one myself because Bri would have no patience for this. Every ornament has so much meaning...

 Below is one of my new ornaments. I found it at the craft fair this year. It is a panda with a Chinese takeout box next to a Christmas tree. The woman who makes these ornaments said this one was her favorite and was really hoping it would not sell. Well, I apologized to her and told her that I just had to have it! It's too perfect...

Bri does help me decorate my artificial upstairs Christmas tree every year...

She does a great job and has fun, but again, I have so many ornaments, she was kind of over it about 3/4 of the way through. She was pretty happy with how it turned out though...

Mei "helping" decorate the tree again...

About a week after Bri and I decorated the upstairs tree, I decided to change the topper to a 5 pointed star instead of using the round one. I just wanted a change...

 Bri also decorates our China-themed tree in our dining room...

 

This is my white mini "White House ornaments" tree. I have 19 years of White House ornaments. Doug and I bought our 1st two ornaments (1998 and 1999) when we visited the White House in 1999. Doug's grandmother started sending a WH ornament to us every year at Christmastime after that. When she passed, Doug's aunt continued the tradition. I will be very excited when we get number 20 next year...

And this little tree below is a special tree. I made it over the summer. Since I was a kid, I have collected little items like shells, erasers, stones, pins, etc and just placed them in a box. I didn't really know what to do with any of it. So after thinking a bit, I bought a styrofoam cone, painted it green and glued all my special little "things" to it and made a Christmas tree of memories...

 Briana also has a small Christmas tree in her bedroom, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

You all might think I am a bit nuts for having so many Christmas trees and decorations, but when my house looks so festive at Christmastime, it is totally worth it to me...

And when I am perfecting the inside of the house, Doug works on the outside. He did a beautiful job...