Completed Trees: November Gratitude & Christmas

We have completed our Gratitude Tree for November (or rather "through Thanksgiving")
[Click pic to read all the leaves bigger]


It was such a good experience, we're also going to do a December Gratitude Tree, in lieu of a candy-filled Advent calendar. [The last two years, we did a nativity sticker each day in our Advent calendar, until we had made the whole nativity scene by Christmas.] For this December/Advent, we have a big blank evergreen coloring page outline that JB printed at work, and I'm going to cut out different ornament shapes and stars with my Silhouette to write our thankfuls on & decorate the tree.

Speaking of Christmas trees, I never posted a pic of ours:
(I don't know why this pic makes it look so slim - it's a very full 7.5" tree! I should've stood in the pic, too, & gotten a skinny mini pic of me! :-D)
What do your Christmas trees look like? I have always admired the chic themed trees that look like they came out of Vogue Living or Elle Decor - my BFF Jackie does *AMAZING* different themed trees every year that make me swoon!!! But I need mine to tell a longer story... (I'm sure you are shocked that even my Christmas tree has a LOT to say! :-P) Our tree is a rainbow reflection of our family. It always has colored lights, (I grew up with white lights outside, but colored lights on our tree - it always felt so fun & festive, not frosty & formal.) 90% of our ornaments are hand blown glass ornaments - they are my favorites: classic, beautiful, colorful. The rest are either special hand-me-downs, picture frames, mementos, or ones the kids have made. I want every single ornament on our tree to have a story or special meaning to us. I would never go out & buy a box of random balls to hang on it - that's just not me. Our Christmas tree is pretty much a giant, colorful scrapbook of our family! Our new ornaments this year: a peach, for Georgia and Annelise (our Princess Pumpkin Peach) and - get this! - an armadillo we found at a Christmas shop in Savannah for the armadillo in our front yard! :-D

Now, tell me about yours!

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