Christmas Tree!

We finally put up our Christmas tree today! It usually lives in the basement - it's fake; Mom thinks that real ones are too much hassle - among our boxes of ornaments and lights and tinsel and things like that. It's really big - at least twice as tall as I am! Zoe's glad for that; she says more presents can fit underneath!

Usually, Zoe and Mom help me decorate the tree, but Zoe was at hockey practice really late tonight and Mom was cooking dinner, so I did it myself.

I opened the box of glass balls first. It's our family's tradition to hang enough of these balls to cover about half of the tree, and then cover the remaining spaces with fun ornaments. I like the glass balls a lot - they're my favorite colors, and have polka dots! - but the fun ornaments are so much more, well, fun.

I sat down on the floor and picked up one of the ornaments. (Sorry for the bad lighting - our good camera was charging so I had to use the cheap one. It's not so great at taking pictures in the dark).

Then I started hanging them on the tree.

I finished that pretty quickly, but needed to call for help from Dad to hang the ornaments on the higher branches.

Next came my favorite part - opening the box of crazy ornaments!

I slid off the top...

In this box are two cookie ornaments, two chinese takeout boxes, two boxes of popcorn, two poptarts, two birthday cakes, a jingly pumpkin, and two strands of silver stars. Mom made them all out of polymer clay a couple of years ago (well, except for the pumpkin and the stars). Of course, in addition to these we also have the standard bells and angels and stars and things like that, but I like Mom's ornaments the best. Every year, when I open the box, it's like I'm being reunited with a group of friends that I had mostly forgotten about.

I think the takeout boxes are my favorite ones, but the cookies are a pretty close second.

I started hanging these ones on the tree. Mom put the dinner in the oven, and came in to help hang the rest of the ornaments.

We stood back to admire our handiwork after they had all been hung.

The last step was to turn on the lights. I plugged in the tree.

Zoe came home just as the tree lit up, and Mom turned off the lights in the kitchen so we could see better.

Zoe and I stood back to admire the tree, which looked very pretty in the dark with its colorful lights.

I'm so excited for Christmas! I already have ideas for presents for my family and friends. Mom got a big cardboard box in the mail the other day that she wouldn't let me look at, and I can't wait to figure out what's inside!

Do you celebrate Christmas? If not, what do you celebrate? What traditions do you have?

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!