Christmas Tree

We were so excited to decorate our Christmas tree this year, because it is the first time that we have all of our ornaments together (pre-New York and New York). We decided just to use our little 3-foot fake tree that we've had in storage in Idaho. A full size tree would just be a bit big for our current living room. One of these years we'll get a full size tree.

We decided to unwrap/unbox all of our ornaments first, before hanging any on the tree. We have quite the collection. Although our tree is so small, it took us forever to decorate because we have so many ornaments

Brian's parents have a tradition of buying a Christmas ornament at each new place they visit. When we first got married, Brian and I decided to make that our tradition as well. The first ever Christmas ornament we bought was this gold plated maple leaf from Butchart Gardens in Victoria Canada. That's where Brian took me for our honeymoon. 

While living in Idaho we collected a few more... one from Jackson Hole, one from West Yellowstone, one during our trip to San Francisco to see Brian's brother get married. During our years in NYC, we've collected a whole bunch more. We have an ornament from all of the major sights, like the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty. Others are from events we went to, like the Lion King on Broadway, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, or the Rockettes. We also have ornaments from Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Arizona, Oregon, Nebraska, and Utah that we've picked up over the years on our various trips. 

It was so fun to pull each ornament out again this year, and reminisce about the experience/place that it represents. The nostalgia of each ornament, plus trying to find a place where it would fit on our tiny tree, drew out the decorating process a lot longer than it should have taken. But we didn't mind. It made for a fun at-home date night.

I think it turned out perfect.