merry christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!! We are very excited, since this is the first year Jasper is really excited about Santa Claus... here is a sneak peek at what will be under the tree this year. I can't wait to see his reaction! Will post more photos over the holidays and do some much needed blog catching-up (hmmm... will note this for resolution making for the new year). Happy Holidays! :)

pine fresh

The house is smelling pine fresh... or should I say, fir fresh? We went and got our Christmas tree this week... a little 6' noble fir. And as you can see we have thrown on every decoration we inherited from our parents and grandparents on to this thing... my anti-Martha tree, as I like to refer to it. I think the 70's tinsel garlands are my favourite touch.

baby's first christmas

We hope everyone is having a great holiday break! I thought I would sneak this post in between the two holiday weekends, amidst the buzz of visiting, family gatherings, and constant feasting (perhaps, too much feasting). Here is a pic of our tree (yes, it is real... uh, and, yes... it is sort of a mishmash of old and new ornaments... I like to think of it as my anti-designer tree... heehee). This was Jasper's first Christmas... and we found out very quickly that he loves playing with wrapping paper. We probably could have wrapped up piles of wrapping paper as a gift and he would have loved it, but alas, Santa did get him real gifts. Here he is with one of his favourites... the dancing Snoopy doll (the head and feet move so it looks like it's dancing to the Peanuts song!).

naked no more

Hooray... our tree is naked no more! Here he is in all his glory. Every year we go against the color-coordinated Martha-inspired designer-looking trees and opt for the old school, mismatched, "let's try to fit every ornament and bauble we have onto one tree" methodology. After inheriting so many of them from our parents and grandparents... the odd ornament combo (some from the 60s/70s/80s), mixed in with some handmade ones thrown into the mix seem to work. Ok... so some of the ornaments are worse for wear.. the glitter is slowly coming off, or I have had to redraw some on some of the eyes for some of the characters, but we love it, and I think the tree really loves it too.

ps. don't forget to enter my December giveaway here to win a calendar! :)

he is still naked

Last night, we went and picked out our green holiday friend... a 6' Noble Fir. It was a bit late getting back, and by the time we got him into the stand, our hunger won over the desire to decorate. So now he stands in our living room a little naked (but not self conscious, of course), looking more like a giant indoor air freshener than a holiday tree. But not to worry, we are breaking out the decorations today, so we'll have some nice "after" shots to share with you soon!

festival of light

Weirdly enough, I think I am more prepared this holiday season than previous years. Even though I haven't finished getting all the gifts, panic hasn't struck me yet. This past week, we even had time to head down to Van Dusen Botanical Garden to check out the Festival of Lights. The picture doesn't do it justice, but imagine one of those crazily decorated Christmas houses on your street but multiplied by 100x in size. I love the new LED lights, but I noticed they mixed them in with the regular lights this year... perhaps the trippy effect of too many of them together last year caused too many people to stumble in the flower bushes. You can check out the Dancing Lights show here, but be forewarned the rock-ballad Yanni-esque Christmas music is a tad scary.

our noble friend

My parents used to have the type of artificial tree where you would have to plug in each branch into a broom handle-like pole. They have since upgraded to a white number with fiber optic lights to keep up with the times. Perhaps I am rebelling as an adult from all those years of plastic – Roger and I always opt for a real tree each year. We revisited our favorite tree lot this week and got ourselves a 5.5' Noble Fir. While I like the look of colour-coordinated designer trees, we have attachments to our old ornaments and like to have our tree kick it old school. The majority of the ornaments aren't actually valuable heirlooms, but inexpensive plastic baubles and kitschy decorations from the 70s and 80s we acquired from both our families. Every year some of the glitter comes off of one, or an eye will fall off one of the characters, but I wouldn't have it any other way.