Decorating Our Living Tree

This year we went with a Living Christmas Tree. The tree itself is about 4.5 feet tall (well, shorter after we trimmed the top so that the star didn't lean over.) I had brought back some beads and unbreables xmas balls & a star I used on the xmas tree when I lived in my first apartment with Jeni. The tree sits on it's big root ball filled with dirt (burlap covered) and in a pot. We put a black pastic bag around the the pot so that any water wouldn't leak out onto the floor. Then in the spring we can plant this (whereever our permanent house will be) or donate it to a park or give it to someone we know to plant.) It's out little thing we are doing to have a greener Christmas.

Isabel was playing with the beads just like she does with her scarves. She had fun.

Another nice thing about the living tree is that we will have the pine smell, but since it stays living, we won't be cleaning up pine needles. And the fact that it sits up higher on a root ball means that it's harder for Isabel (or the cats) to take ornaments off the tree.

Decorating the tree was a new experience for Isabel, as she was too young last year. Daddy strung on the LED lights (we only need 1 strand of 50 lights on our tree) and the beads and placed the star on top, but Isabel helped hang the xmas balls & candy canes.

We are going to be turning out xmas cards into ornaments to hang on the tree as we get them. I thought that would be a neat way to display them and decorate the tree.

The top picture I took in the dark using the night function on my camera. You can see the lights better in that picture. Christmas trees always looks better in person than in pictures. I will try taking one during the daylight, which makes a tree look better in photos too. Anyways, I used a little glittery Christmas scarf (batting) that I already had to cover the root ball. It is easy enough to pull that up to water the tree. One could just as easily use fabric or some tree skirt they have too.

Isabel hand painted several ornaments. This one is for us on our tree. She did others that will be given as gifts. I bought these wooden cutouts at Michaels and then she handpainted them and I put on a layer of clear fingernail polish to make it so her finger paint wouldn't smudge off, drilled holes in the top & ran a tring through. It was hard to pick which one we wanted for ourselves. They all turned out so nice and have a stained glass look to them. They all look different.