Christmas Decorating!

This year is probably the earliest my mom and I have put up our tree!  The only reason we did it so "early" (it's in quotation marks because I know that in blogland this really isn't that early!) is because I wanted it done before the weekend because I was going to have friends over to decorate gingerbread houses! (My one friend ended up terribly sick, so we postponed it)

First thing we do: pour some wine! lol  It's a tradition in my family to drink this cheap wine which we refer to as "porch climber" at Christmas time, I honestly can't even think of what it's called but I could pick it out of a lineup!  Additionally, at my house, we have certain wine glasses that we drink it out of too, which we really don't use for anything else!

Next we drag all the boxes up from downstairs.  Then my mom usually sets up the tree and "fluffs" it while I set up our little Christmas village.  This year I was going to help fluff, but I started and apparently wasn't doing a good enough job, so village it was!

 (having fun with the panorama feature on my camera!)

These houses are all painted by me and my sister.  It started as a Christmas tradition many years ago, my family would by us a house and a set of paints, and after a while, we ended up with a whole village!

Then we put all the ornaments on the tree! It's sure nice to have a pre-lit tree!!!  

Our tree has had a red and white theme for a long time.  This year we decided to add the gold balls because we're considering doing something different soon, and we're going to slowly transition into it with the gold.  

All of the crochet snowflakes were made by my mom.  I absolutely love them!  

All our tree decorations are very pretty, mostly red white and gold with one exception...   RAISIN PIG!!! 

(stay tuned for my favorite Christmas tradition which I'll be posting tomorrow!!)

We also put up our wreath.  My mom always wanted a wreath but never had one, so one year for Christmas my sister and I made one and it's now part of our standard holiday decorations.

When we were done decorating we had another glass of wine and some little puff pastries that had various cheeses and goodness inside!  YUM!