Oh Christmas Tree....

Mr. Free and I (OK....sometimes just me...) usually shop til we drop on Black Friday then set the house all up for Christmas when we get home.

Needless to say we relax all day Saturday....

Over the next week or so I will show you little glimpses into our decked-out-for-the-holidays home.

I thought today I'd start with our tree.

She is just 6 ft. tall.

She isn't pre-lit.

She was just $15 four years ago.

We have adorned her with decorations from the $1 store.

She is outfitted with

white lights

red garland

red ornaments

snowflakes

icecicles

red bows

candy canes

special ornaments

with a

big bow and star on top

We decided to start fresh with our 'married tree' and not hang up our childhood ornaments.

We still have them though.

So our tree has an ornament for each of our animals

As well as an ornament for each Christmas we've had married.

Our first year ornament is the snowflake with our wedding picture in it that is in the top picture.

The second year ornament is the Peanuts classroom. This is the year Mr. Free went back to school to be a teacher.

We are now both teachers.

Music and Art.

We are hippies.

The third year ornament is one of a cat and dog.

Because we love our little furbabies.

And this year I got a dove that says 'hope'.

It just seemed very, very appropraite for the year we've had.

Our first year married my mom got each each an ornament to reflect us.

I got a treble clef.

And Mr. Free got a fireman Santa.

Our first year married Mr. Free had just graduated the Fire Academy and was volunteer firefighting on weekends.

He obviously has had a career change since then.

So there you have it.

Our little tree for our little home.

Want to know a secret?

We don't trim the tree every year.

We put a big bag over it, decorated and all and simply put it down in our storage room.

Fully intact.

Each year we just bring it up stairs, take the bag of and voila!

I don't know if it's genius or trashy......

*shrug*