It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like ...

I LOVE Christmas!

I love the music, the decorations, sending cards and thinking of that special gift to give someone.  I love the cheesy TV specials, drinking out of mugs that look like snowmen, meals with family and the cookies you bake just once a year.  I love driving around the neighbourhood with a travel mug of hot chocolate while admiring someone's light display at 5 kms an hour.  I could go on ... but you get the idea.  My favourite of the favourite is decorating the tree.

Last week Dave had the week off, so we decided to set up our trees.  We have 2 artificial ones.  A large one set up upstairs in our livingroom with all my nice ornaments I've collected since we've been married.  This tree is a definite no touch for those under 4 feet tall.  The second is a small 3 ft. tree kept in our family room/play room. 

Cole has always been good about not touching anything he was told not too.  When he was younger we never even had to put safety locks on a single item in our house.  Kendall is now 18 months.  We still don't have any safety latches, but Kendall likes to push the boundaries when she thinks no one is looking.  Okay ... sometimes even when I AM looking!  So this year I knew that I needed to be creative about the tree readily accessable to little hands.  That, or watch Kendall every second of the day. 

So I chose option #1.  I put anything breakable away and left out only ornaments that were plastic, foam, or metal.  Then I found this tutorial for these felt ornaments online. 

Believe me they are super simple because my sewing abilities are limited to mending buttons and the straight stitch my Oma taught me when I was a little girl.  I think they turned out quite well and I only worked on them for a couple of days ( I did a dozen of them).  If they peak your interest check out the link.  You can make them simple like I did or, add a little bling in the form of beads.  If I had to do it again I think I would add a couple of layers of fabric to make them a little fuller.

The kids for the first time this year got into helping me decorate their tree.  Cole had trouble hanging the ornaments but, had just as much fun looking at all of them and bringing each one over to me.  They didn't tell me but, I'm pretty sure they are enjoying the finished product.