I have never been one for holiday decorating.  I rarely have been at my own house on the day of the holiday and really didn't see the point.  Well this year I am not only hosting out family Christmas at my house (which means my mom and sisters are flying in from Boston, NYC and San Fran so it needs feel Christmas-y when they get here), but I have also decided to have an Ugly Sweater/Cookie Party.

It started innocently enough by borrowing a fake tree from a friend, putting a few poinsettias around the house and vaguely discussing lights outside with Adam.  Then we went shopping for ornaments. And stockings. And a wreath. And a Snowman made from branches (because we have no snow it can't be white, so its brown?? Guy logic...whatever) with lights in it for the lawn.  When we finally stopped shopping and got home, I set up the tree and immediately we realized that we'd need a bigger tree.  Then the scent of live trees from the evergreen candles we also bought made us decide to get a real tree...and more lights (which meant another trip to the store as we needed a tree stand too).  Armed with so many new holiday themed decorations, we felt comfortable putting our decorating on hold for a few days while I was focusing on a big show.  Yesterday however, I it dawned on us that we are having over 30 people to the house this weekend, and that we had to get our tushes in gear.  So off we went...

I played a lot of "is this our tree?" but they were all about the same size and Adam was obsessed with the first tree we saw, so really I was just posing with trees.  Btw, it's a freezing 60 degrees out so I took it as an excuse to wear my beloved winter wear.

Our tree getting ready to come home with us...its a little imperfect, but as I said, Adam was obsessed with it so this was "the one".

I of course refused to touch the tree as I was wearing beloved winter wear, but luckily Adam needed no help at all and was a champ at tying it to the roof. We got it home in one piece and I set to work with the lights and decorating.  Pausing to also hang art work around the house as that too needs to be done this week and eat candy.

At this point in the tree saga, I realized that we needed more ornaments for the tree and more lights for outside, so I went back to the store...again.  By now most of the ornaments were cleared out, and wrapping supplies have taken their place, but I managed to get half a cart full. And holiday themed hand towels for the powder room, and cute to go boxes for the cookie party, and cocktail napkins, and then I stopped at another store for those white poinsettias down there and fresh greens for the mantle vase.  That's when I realized that there may be a good reason why I have avoided holiday decorating...I get waaaaaay to into it.  Alas, when the rest of the new ornaments were on the tree and all the needles and boxes were cleared away, we turned off the lights...

And decided that it was all absolutely worth it. (and that this photo showed an empty spot on the tree which I fixed so don't you worry about that).