Christmas Decorating

Friday, December 7, 2012

We had to be a little more creative with our Christmas decorating, this year. Our living room is kind of crowded with couches and we weren't able to have a full size Christmas tree up. But, I still wanted to have our ornaments out. As is the Anderson family tradition, we (and all of Ryan's siblings with their families) get an ornament, hand made by Kris, that depicts something that happened that year. Each one is unique and special. Ryan has one for the first 22 years of his life and then we have family ornaments for the last three years. Jared also gets his own ornaments now; this year he got his second. So, I hung some of our extra pine looking garland above our window and hung Ryan's and our families cross stitched ornaments in order. It was kind of fun looking across and seeing the little snap shots from each year of Ryan's life.

This year we got an ornament of delicate arch, because we went to Moab for the first time. Another had a heart that said "home sweet home" since we've moved a lot this year (south Provo, Sandy, north Provo). The other, for Jared, is of an elephant to represent the elephant our family gave to Mark and Kris before they left for Germany. The elephant's name was "Peanut" to remind them of their little Goober.

We hung our stockings on our coat hooks and put our cards on the book shelf.

This is also the first year we've put up lights on the outside of our house. I actually did it by myself, and again had to be creative. I haven't done this very much in my life and I honestly don't know how everyone else hangs lights up on a brick wall; I think we used tape when I was growing up. But, I ended up using the old hooks for hanging cable cords that were all over above the window and door. I also pulled out our glue gun for other spots. It was kind of fun, and I think it turned out okay for our little apartment.