Music to My Ears: Christmastime bling

I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR.

My hubby and I dig the decorating.
Sometimes we just do too much.
It looks like Santa threw up on our house.

So, this year, we're keepin' it simple.
Mmmmm-huh!
Our house is blinged!!

The tree corner looks nice and not too cluttered.

The lights on the tree are shinin' all day long.

Sugar Nugget turns them on as soon as she wakes every morning.

I just LoVe pulling out all the ornaments and taking a moment

to remember where it came from, who made it or why we bought it.

T-Bone and I have a tradition where we buy one new ornament every year.
He usually buys a really cool lookin' one and I usually buy a cutesy Santa-looking ornament.

We've made some homemade decorations throughout the years.
It started out very simply when the girls were young and couldn't do much.
The ornaments make great gifts for family and friends who won't judge
and can appreciate the "home made" stuff.
(Just another reminder that I am not a crafty chick.)

One of our firsts was a glass ornament.
Sweet Cheeks was only 2 1/2 at the time and took red & green permanent markers
and just scribbled on it.
It's hard to see because the marker was green.
Sugar Nugget was only 6 months and just sat around
looking like a cute blob of a baby.

Here they are at ages 2 and 6 months.

I miss those days.

This cute snowman was made from the foam-like clay.
I think the manufacturer is Playdough.
It was easy for the kids to shape and hardened up nicely.
We used assorted sizes of beads on the mouth and eyes.

I like this one.
It was a simple, clear, glass ornament.
We poured a variety of paint colors inside and rolled the paint around.
Each ornament came out really pretty!

Ah, the wood-shaped ornaments.

They were the kids favorites.

We painted the entire ornament and let it dry.

Came back to it with the puffy paints to add some style and flair.

Ah, last but not least...
The white glass bulb with permanent markers to do the trick.
It's a great classroom craft, too.

These intricate ornaments are homemade by our good friends, Julie and Eric.
They took beautiful shells and made them into Christmas art!
Truly amazing!

With such a great season and fun decorating, my favorite is when
the girls decorate their trees. They each have one in their bedroom.

This was a tradition we started about 4 years ago.
They've got a box of ornaments that includes hello kitty, shrek, plastic balls, dora, etc.

This year came as a surprise to me when Sweet Cheeks
didn't want any of those decorations for HER tree.
She wanted to classy-it-up by choosing only balls, colorful crystal acryllics and beads.

Again...another sign that she's growing up!

I'm not surprised but truly want to take it a bit slower, please.