Looks a lot like Christmas

This year we have our very first real Christmas tree as a little family! In the past we've put up 2 very small synthetic trees, in part because we're usually away from home for Christmas, and because we don't have a whole lot of ornaments.  The little trees have always been nice, but I was hoping for a real tree this year.  About two weeks ago, though, I pulled out the ornament box, and well, it didn't have many ornaments in it.  It was a very small box, much smaller than I was expecting.  I've been collecting ornaments here and there the last few years to build up an amount that might fill a tree, but I still didn't have very many (I swear some are missing because I feel pretty certain we have a lot more).  So I told Andrew that maybe we'd wait till next year to have a tree. I like to pick ornaments one at a time, or a few at a time at the flea market, or get them on sale at Anthropologie after Christmas. So I decorated the two little trees and called it a day. I packed up the rest of the cute ornaments and put them back in their box to be stored until next year, which made me a little sad because we're staying home this year.  I was sad, that is, until Andrew walked in door with a Christmas tree!!

He was wearing a big o'l smile, ear to ear, a smile so big and one I've only seen on him a few times.  He smiles a lot, but I'm talking Joker big.  He was so excited to bring home a tree.  He said we have to have a tree for Lois's first Christmas (well technically her second, but she was just tiny last year, and we weren't here for Christmas anyway).  We put the tree in the stand, and I got out our little ornament box and decorated the tree.  It looks so beautiful.  I love it!  It doesn't even really matter that the ornaments are a little sparse--with some tinsel, candy canes, and christmas cards stuffed in the tree (a family tradition), it looks just right.  And I think I'll go to the flea market this weekend to see if I can find a few more vintage ornaments.

I took these pictures with our new camera and lens, not my iPhone for a change.  The camera is awesome!  Initally I took a few pictures and thought they were pretty good.  I put them on my computer and made some adjustments in Lightroom.  Later, though, I checked out Greg Miller's blog when I was doing a few minutes of blog reading.  He's one of my favorite photographers, and I'm always so impressed with his pictures.  I saw on his blog that he just posted about decorating his tree. I love the pictures, and decided I should have another go at mine. My post inspiration pictures are much better, I think, than my first attempt.

We don't have many Christmas presents yet, but the best thing under the tree yesterday was a cutie named Lois, all wrapped up in her Christmas dress. As usual it was hard getting pictures of her, but this one turned out pretty well and is one of my favorites.  I love how her arm is showing and still looks really chubby.

After all that work, some hot chocolate with whipped cream was in order.  It was a festive afternoon.