O' Christmas Tree...

It's that time of year where our family decides to put up the Christmas tree. When we were a bit younger, we used to put it up on the 1st of December. Today is a full-on day for me: Work, House viewing and then Zumba with a friend. My busy day will end just before 7pm and I have requested mum's assistance (and insisted) that it's time to put up the tree.

Some people get a real tree, that smells amazing, but some people just pull out the same box from the back of the cupboard, each year... we are those people. We recently had to purchase a new tree because the "pine needles" on our old one were starting to fall off. We had had that tree for a few years, and it had seen enough Christmas-es, so we bought a new one!

I absolutely love decorating the Christmas tree! It just makes it feel like Christmas is so close. I've done my main Christmas shopping, I've got ideas of what to get my friends, and I'm already humming Christmas songs in my head on the way to work. Now we really need a tree!

Some people think the whole of Christmas is ridiculous or pointless, but I love it! I get more excited about Christmas than I do about my birthday! Christmas is when mum combines everyone's favorite dishes and makes an amazing spread of deliciousness that we eat on for days afterward. It means Christmas goes on for longer than 2 days in our house and that is just fine with me. Although, my pants do sit a little tighter than usual, and since December means summertime in New Zealand, my bikini gets hidden for a little while after Christmas pigging-out.

As we grew up, there were lots of handmade Christmas ornaments making their way onto the tree. A couple years ago, mum decided we should just use the bought ones - not that our childhood handiwork wasn't worth showing off, but some of them were looking a little worse for wear. Every year mum works her magic with big, wide ribbons cascading down the tree, with a ribbon nest at the top for the angel to sit in. The lights are tangled around the branches, and then the real fun starts. Selecting the perfect place for the bows and baubles and other little Christmas ornaments.

It's always a great time, decorating the tree! It's been a bit different now that my sister moved out of the house, so now it's usually down to mum and I to do the tree, but it's still lots of fun!

How do you decorate your tree? And when do you put yours up?

Hope you're having a wonderful life

Aletia xx