Day 321: O Tannenbaum

The tree is my favorite part of Christmas (after the time off and the time with family, of course), so I'd been looking forward to getting our tree for a while. I love the way the tree smells and its warm, bright lights. It definitely feels like Christmas around here now!

Last year, LB was only interested in looking at and trying to grab the tree; this year, however, she was anxious to help Mama and Papa decorate. When I told her she could hang this little bulb, she put a lot of consideration into where to place it.


Here, she carefully examines the tree, this time trying to decide how to hang the red-bead garland.
One of my favorite Lovejoy-Fordham Xmas traditions is the yearly ornament selection. Every year that we've celebrated Xmas together, Tom and I buy a new ornament to hang on the tree. Apart from the little, colorful bulbs, we don't hang any other ornaments up. We started this tradition during our first year as a married couple, so we now have six ornaments.

Here's the ornament from our first Xmas as the Lovejoy-Fordham Alliance: a snowman riding a pig. We thought it was goofy and strange at the time. The snowman suffered an injury while I was trying to hang him yesterday, so we need to get some glue before this pair is ready for the tree.
For our second Xmas together, we decided to class things up a bit and so picked out this beauty:
The third year:
This fourth ornament was purchased in a glassblowing shop in Centralia, WA while we were visiting Gramme.
During our fifth Xmas season together, I was pregnant with LB and I also went to Ottawa to visit my sister. I came back just before Xmas, but we completely forgot to buy an ornament together, so while I was taking care of some last minute Xmas eve shopping, I picked up this little red bird. I think it's a bit lame, but it is what it is, I guess.
Then last year, on LB's first Xmas, we bought the porcupine. I hung him low on the tree, and LB loves to say "Hi" to him.
So this will be the seventh Xmas of the Lovejoy-Fordham Alliance. We still need to buy an ornament, but when we do, it will definitely be featured on the blog.

Yesterday, we also hung up the stockings. I'll let you guess which one belongs to which Alliance member.
And since Sunday evenings are now our Saturday nights thanks to Tom's schedule change, we had our friend Melinda over for a late dinner. We roasted up a tofurkey and some veggies. It was delicious, despite what any naysayers may believe!