Oh, Christmas Tree; Oh Christmas Tree...How stressful you can BE!

A few weeks ago, I went to a ladies' event at church focused on making the holidays less-stressed and more fun. One of the things that was mentioned was letting the children be more involved with the festivities...for example, decorating the Christmas tree. I had always taken that task for myself because...well...I can be a little OCD about how it looks in the end. But this year, I decided to go with the flow--I let the girls decorate it how they see fit (and turn my head when the ornaments get put on the same 3 branches...).

My first order of business was to get 2 hat boxes to put each girls' ornaments in... That way, they can be in charge each year of putting up, and taking down their own ornaments. I will be in charge of any extra-special ones I don't want broken, but for the most part, they will be THEIR ornaments to take care of. I found some fun, funky pink and green boxes at Hobby Lobby and started sorting ornaments. The girls were so excited to have their own set (even though Liv had a TON more than Bella did since she's had more Christmases than her sister...).

I also bought a pre-lit, hinged tree. Before, it would take us over an hour to assemble our old tree and another 1-2 hours to put up lights. This year, it literally took 15 minutes!! Ya-Hoo!!!

Then the girls put up the ornaments. And just like I figured, Bella put all her ornaments on the same 3 branches...and I loved it! I remembered when the lady that spoke at the luncheon said to cherish when the ornaments are all at the bottom of the tree--because when the little ones grow up, it won't look the same... Since I have been having a hard time with Bella getting older it is a great way to cherish (and remember) the little hands that decorated my tree this year.




Then, in her mother's ways, Olivia asked if she could spread Bella's ornaments out... LOL! I told her "No Way! We are leaving them right where you both put them!"

One more tradition we have is for the girls to one ornament that represents their year. This year, of course, it is DANCE, DANCE, DANCE! Bella's is a little ballerina since she started dance this year, and Livie's is a dancer with pink and white since they won National's this year. I still need to get Bella a 'Hope' ornament though. Each year her ornament usually is one that says "Hope" somewhere on it (because of her middle name) and I want her to have a tree of Hope some day when she grows up... Maybe Liv will have a tree of dance. Literally, over half of her box was full of dance ornaments already!