Christmas trees have never let me down...

.....until this year.

I had a new plan, a new vision for this year of decorating for the Christmas season I so cherish but my grand plan ultimately eluded me. I mentioned to Enz, awhile back, that even just the thought of putting up the up-side down tree was getting me down; it's as difficult to decorate as it is beautiful (well, beautiful to me anyhow) and being unable to skip up and down the ladder as I used to, it just made sense to go back to a plain old rightside-up tree this year. Of course, I didn't want to bring the big tree back into the house from my workshop because I love having it's constant comfort when I'm working away my boredom out there... which meant we were on the hunt for new Christmas trees.

I asked Enz for four weeks if we could go out to look at trees but he had more important things he wanted to do, mostly he just doesn't like the slow time it takes me to get around in stores and was just avoiding having to take me. I quickly gave up asking to go out (even though I desperately need out of this house) and started looking on-line but you might be as surprised as I was to find that there really aren't a lot of artificial Christmas tree sellers on the web. I was certain there would be TONS of retail options... but there just simply isn't. I did happen across the sweetest trees in a store in the US and thought they would be perfect for our cabin and set to ordering upon first sight. Those trees were not to be. Bit of a long story about how I found and then just as quickly lost my dream Christmas trees so I'll just skip over the hooplah and share our new make-do tree instead.

I should also mention that once my dream trees had been lost to me, I had searched further and found another tree that healed my disappointment in it's own different look of perfect but because we were searching so desperately late in the season, the nine foot tree I had my heart newly set on had already been sold out; we will be keeping watch on that beautiful gem for when it comes available again!

Anyhow, I had been elated when I found the trees I had envisioned and devastated when they disappeared on me but still, we needed a tree. And so I sent Enz on a small-skinny-tree finding mission. He stopped in to a store at lunchtime one day and called me about a tree he said was "alright for this year" so I said "whatever, as long as it's a slim-line because I wasn't going through the hassle of rearranging furniture for a tree that wasn't my vision and was just "alright for this year"...

Which brought us to here.....

Play was a little put out that his dad just brought the tree and then left
to go back to work again.

But he was also pretty happy with the drop-off package...
"Hey, Day, come look... it's act'lly a pretty nice looking one!"

"It does look nice, Play... And you know this means
Christmas tree-decorating snacks, too, right??!"

"Can we open it, Mama? I think you just need to cut this strap right here..."

It looked okay but it still wasn't calling me to open it as it seemed to be for the boys.....

The tree sat in the box at the front door, unmoved like this, for three days before Enz finally talked me into setting it up with the promise that if I didn't like the first two tree sections he would return it the following day. Fine. Whatever. We set the tree up. I didn't like it. But Enz said, "It's actually not a bad tree, I kind'a like it..." Well, I didn't like it but just because my eyes were not impressed, I wasn't about to upset his sights of the 'liking variety' because that wouldn't be very Christmassy of me, at all! So, we kept the tree.

The tree I actually wanted had colour + clear lights which I absolutely LOVED and had my heart set on. We've always had clear lights on our trees and we both wanted a full-on change this year with coloured lights but the colours just seemed a little harsh on their own so when I found the mixture, it was just perfect... so perfect that they were sold out, in fact!!! But that's okay, at least I know a lot of people are loving those colour + clear lighted trees. Enz had carefully chosen a tree that has both colour and clear light options as well as an alternating option but nothing offered the solid colour + clear steady option, still I appreciate that he tried. He knew I wasn't happy even though I said it was "okay" and he asked me if I wanted to put the star lights on to mix at least a little clear into the colour even though it wouldn't be the same. I really didn't want to. I didn't like the tree itself, I didn't like the lights and I didn't want to waste any extra effort on a tree that wasn't right. But I agreed and we added the lights. And then the tree sat bare but for its lights over the next few days. I was okay with not decorating this tree further.

But on the fourth day of turning on the tree lights that had no ornaments to shine upon, Enz suggested we just take a drive into town and buy all new ornament for this tree for this one year and just have a brand new Christmas view. No, I didn't want to do that, the lights and ugly tree were enough...

We had put the star lights on and it did help to soften the glow. And suddenly, on the fifth morning while having my coffee in that softer glow I realized something... I realized that perfect isn't always 'perfect'. And that's when a new vision of perfect came to me.

Plaid.

This tree, the tree I had been so hard on, so critical of... deserved plaid. This tree would be plaidly glad and I immediately set to making it happen. My boys and I headed out to the workshop, stopping only to steal a pair of Enz's plaid pyjama pants on our way outside because I certainly wasn't about to sacrifice any of my own beloved plaid for my new grand plan... just in case my ornament idea didn't work out and the plaid had been sacrificed for nothing!

Day really wanted to decorate the tree... mostly because he LOVES our annual tree decorating snack time... and so I promised him that we would decorate with the few ornaments we had made in the workshop which would totally count as 'decorating' but that we had to wait until Dad came home to share the moments and snacks all together.



I do not remember a single Christmas when
this was not our tree-decorating snack treat of
awesomeness... Enz could do without it but it's
a tradition I demand we carry on!

 

Dad just couldn't come home fast enough even
though Day waited in constant watch for his vehicle
to start up the road...

Now, the necessity for new ornaments does not come from lack of Christmas decorations; we have collected too many over the years...

This front closet, aside from the coat-hanging rod, is dedicated completely to tidy ease of Christmas decoration storage. Every bin, every drawer is filled with decorations and it opens under the stairs into an L-shape at the far end where we store the big tree as well as the loft trees and stair/railing garlands.

Play is going to LOVE his Christmas garland pool ball ornaments
hung from the stair banisters in front of his all-time favourite nap-spot!

My grand ornament idea actually worked out and not only in my newly desired style but also in lifting my spirits and my hopes for perfectly unperfectness.

Thanks to the well-intended sacrifice of Enz's pyjamas along with the well-intended sacrifice of a workshop tree
ornament, a hot-glue gun and some stretchy jewellery cord... a plaid ornament was born!

When Enz finally did arrive home I told him of my new plaid plan for this sad little tree that he actually liked and I showed him the ornament I had made. I was shocked that he really liked the idea and the ornament and even better... he didn't recognize the plaid so I didn't have to own up to cutting up his pj's! He asked me if I wanted him to go to the craft store and see if he could find plastic ornament balls but I asked instead that he take a run to the fabric store for plaids since I was willing to just recover the shop ornaments because they worked so well.

It turned out to be incredibly healing for me to be able to put so much of my own self into giving this tree just what I felt it had been waiting for, to make it beautiful in my own heart. And as I worked away on making these simple, homey, however each one individually turned-out ornaments I heard my beloved Kenny Rogers singing 'Kentucky Homemade Christmas' in my mind and that's when I decided that this tree was to be entirely fashioned out in homemade love. I set to work over the next days, bringing ornaments of plaid into being...



Simple, plaid...
it changes everything for the better!

All the larger ornaments got to be covered in the
black and white buffalo plaid!



I felt like the snowflakes and sweet lil' burros I made out of salt
dough and painted a few years ago for the loft trees would totally
fit with this homemade plan...



And then I thought a few knitted ornament covers would just soften everything
together so I worked out a quick pattern and knitted them up as we sat and watched a
Hallmark Christmas movie two evenings in a row...

 And, of course, because the tree is to be adorned in plaid... I felt a plaid onesie was a fitting outfit to decorate in... really it was just a perfect excuse to hang out in a comfy onesie!

Play supervised ornament placement from the couch...

...but got up every now and then to correct my 'mistakes in listening'!

And Day... well, once snacks were done..... so was he.

Once our Christmas tree was alllllll plaided, snowflaked and burroed OUT, well... I fell totally in love with it!

The messiness works... for me anyhow!

The Christmas tree that had started, for me, as a disappointment brought me to a place of homemade Christmas peaceful. It may look gaudy and silly but I put all my love into every ornament that helps this little tree to shine in celebration. I live for plaid and sharing my love of plaid with this tree helped remind me of what Christmas really means to me. Christmas means home and family and comfort and that's just what this tree has become to me. Just like in Kentucky Homemade Christmas, "...just odds and ends I fashioned, with me heart and with my hands...."

And so in the end... I wasn't actually 'let down' by a Christmas tree at all and instead was lifted. Sometimes it's just far too easy to find ourselves lost in the rush of the world or the losses we may have suffered. It took a homemade Christmas to make me see what's really most important. Have you ever lost your own Holiday way? How did you find your way through?