*Tree of Enchantment*

This year is my and Mike's first year living together, therefore our first Christmas together and I'm quite excited for it! I think it's going to be a great year filled with visiting family and some friends. We got an artificial tree because...well I wanted one!

My brother is allergic and so growing up we always had a fake tree and I have such happy memories of 'putting together the Christmas tree'. On ours growing up it was basically a metal pole and all the branches were colour coded so you just had to match up the colours. I loved doing this with my brothers.

Also, an artificial tree ends up costing less because you only buy it once. It doesn't have any mess. Nobody will have a reaction to it. AND most importantly you can have it up WAY longer! Its an all around winning situation :)

We started out not having any Christmas tree decorations at all, just the lights which come already on the tree. And I was okay with that - I knew that throughout our years together (hopefully there are many) we would gather decorations that mean something to us, lots of memories and keepsakes from our lives. One night we had Mike's parents over for dinner and his mom suggested that I put up the extra (and old) candy canes that I had from baking on to the tree. I loved this idea! It looks great and it was free - I love free and thrifty  :)

Then Mike and I decided to go to Hallmark to pick up an ornament that celebrated our first Christmas together. I have a slight obsession with Hallmark :)

I also remembered that my very best friend gave me a beautiful glass ornament (this photo does not do it justice AT ALL). It sparkles and shines off the lights and is so pretty - I want about a hundred of these! The colours on the globe are all fall colours and it comes with a little tag that explains it all:

Enjoy the magic of the seasons with this beautiful

glass ornament. Like the trees in a forest, no two

are the same, and each is a symbol of growth,

strength and the cycle of life. As the seasons

change so does nature's colour palette.

How nice eh? The ball she gave me is autum which says:

The fiery ambers of Fall bring to mind a magical

sunset on a cool Autumn night. The trees explode

with colour just before a Winter Slumber. 'Look

too closely and you may just fall into your own

fairy tale'.

AH! I just LOVE this ornament. And I'm happy to have a symbol of the wonderful friendship I have been so lucky to recieve.

The last ornament that we have Mike's sister bought for us. She saw it at the hospital she is doing her placement at and thought of us and bought it. She brushed off my thanks saying that it was just a cheap one, but it means so much to me that she was so thoughtful - it doesn't matter to me how much it costs. I will always treasure the gift of thought from his lovely sister! Who I am thanful to call a friend as well :)

Believe me, Brady is not as tortured as he looks in this photo! He hates having his picture taken. Too bad for him that he's just so stinkin cute :)  (Lastly, I could not find spell check for this post for some reason so please excuse my mistakes. It's probably right in front of me and I can't see it for lookin!)