Christmas Traditions. . . A Tree Decorating Party.

Ever since the kids were small, the first Saturday in December was set aside to decorate the tree.

As I have a bit of a problem with keeping things simple, I would combine this activity with the chance to have various family and friends over at the same time, giving me the opportunity to start the holiday season out right.

In the early days, before I amassed an ornament collection well able to decorate three trees, we would start the evening off by creating decorations with the kids and our guests.

 We fashioned garlands of froot loops and paper then crafted ornaments of clay and painted paper doodads galore.

Well do I remember the the happy exclamation made by one of Henry's younger brothers at one of these marathon sessions. . .

"This is awesome! It's so tacky!"

To be fair he was only 17 at the time. . . but still. . .  Tacky???  Not quite what I was going for. . .

For the last several years we have had the same family over and it has become our way of getting in a good visit before the holiday season gets crazy.

We have known Lorne, Nicole and their boys  for over 20 years and, while our kids have all for the most part grown up, (ahem) my kids still insist on upholding tradition.

This year we added Rebecca and her husband Evan in the mix.

Oddly. . .

 When they moved to Alberta, they moved two doors down from Lorne and Nicole!

For the first time ever, we old people did nothing more than supervise and we had a fabulous time.

The kids did a great job!

 Which is likely because they are not actually kids anymore. . .

Check out our evening . . .

Holly and Morgan thought they would start a new tradition and hit Value Village in search of ugly Christmas sweaters.

Morgan lucked out and found an entire Mr. Rodgers outfit right down to the loafers. Not exactly what he went for but. . . he is my son and improvised.

Holly looked for the ugliest sweater she could find, but, unfortunately for her, everybody thought she looked fabulous in it!

Jada loves Lorne  and Nicole. Nicole was the first person she met after we brought her home from the SPCA.

   Dinner was simple. two of the lasagna's my sister Lisa made when she was up before my surgery, french bread, ceasar salad and a good red wine.

Evan and Rebecca. If you want to have lights hung right. . . get an engineer to do it. . . If you want a tree fluffed up. . .get a girl to do it. (Evan's contribution to the fluffing was respectable as well. . .)

In one of my Christmas magazines, a family had a hot chocolate station for the season. I thought that sounded fun, so we set one  up for the evening. Hot chocolate made with milk, mini marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and, for the grown ups who were so inclined. . . a little Baileys.

 Crystal loves her funky pajama pants!

Supervising.

 Jada keeps her eyes peeled for any accidental droppage. . .

What is is with boys and their inability to tuck garland?

Jesse loves a good cup of hot chocolate!

Mr. Rodgers is doing a great job..

These guys keep me entertained daily. . .

Our finished tree. Didn't they do a great job?

Morgan of course, had to add his string of Yoda lights. . .

Jesse feels every tree needs a face. . .

And,  for the 17th year in a row, Morgan's kindergarten lamb tops the tree. . .

A bonus to having a tree decorating party?  Sometimes people bring you beautiful ornaments.

Why not have a tree decorating party of your own?

A good time will be had by all.