Making Christmas!

Last year, you might not know or remember, but Eddy and I did not get a Christmas Tree. I flew home on Christmas Eve with both the girls to surprise family, and Eddy worked a lot that year. With things tight, we'd decided that since we weren't going to be home for our actual Christmas, we'd just compromise without a tree. So THIS year, is our VERY FIRST tree! Now, still things are tight for us. So I had to appeal to him as much as possible. Cause with a tree, comes lights, a stand, a skirt and, dun dun dun, ornaments. That's the tricky one. So, to budge my case of needing a tree for at least Paetin's sake, I'd decided to make our ornaments. (:

Growing up, my mom was always so crafty, and did things like this to A.) save money and B.) well.. have something to do I suppose. (: She's such a cool lady that mom of mine. (: So, when I mentioned this to her, she suggested that we make small versions of the angel tree toppers and decorations she used to make. I LOVED this idea. That on top of Martha Stewart's recipe for Cinnamon Applesauce ornaments, how could this not work? Well darn that Martha Stewart! Cause, I SUCK! My cinnamon ornaments all fell apart during the baking phase, well, at least half of them, and I was just heartbroken. So genius mom to the rescue again, said we should just use the bits, break them up more, and make sachets. Since Eddy an I had opted for Red, White, and Silver as our colors, we just got the red organza bags that you'd use for a wedding a filled those. (: So we have red on the tree, didn't miss any filled space, and still have the delicious smell. (:

For the angels, we used white and clear corn paper, wooden beads, and hot glue. (: Oh yes, and red tulle for their wings. Now for hair, we did cut up an old sock. LoL. Talk about resourceful. (: Paetin had a lot of fun helping us put them together. She really enjoyed Gloria's frame (our tree topper angel's name) to play with Samantha, and she was rather exceptional and unraveling the corn paper. And honestly, that's the biggest hassle of making these anyways, so she was definitely appreciated there. (: Making Gloria was such a hoot for Mom and me. Right away we thought she was beautiful. Even without a head. Actually, without her head we'd said she was like a praying mantis.. . And we may have turned her into "Sleepy Hollow" once or twice.. won't lie. We sure had plenty of giggles over putting her together, but in the end we were right, she was GORGEOUS. (: We got the angels done, and even bought a stand, lights, and candy canes.. so all that was needed, was for Eddy to get us a tree. After dragging his feet only for like one day, well, maybe two, he went and got one! Paetin was thrilled to help put things on it, and since the only breakable things were the candy canes, we were glad for her help! Now getting Gloria up on top, that was fun. Paetin wanted to, but really a 7' tree is hard to get a topper onto when you're only 42" tall! LoL. So Mom tried to let her, but ended up topping it off herself. So according to Paetin the only thing our tree needs now, is presents! ( :