Celebrate: Christmas and the tree.

One of my very favourite parts of December has got to be getting out the Christmas boxes and rediscovering all of the decorations that help make our home look and feel like Christmas.
When we first got married, we didn't really have any holiday decorations at all, so we decided that rather than rush out and spend a fortune that first year, we would buy a few things for each holiday for years to come. This year will be our fifth Christmas together, and I think choosing our special Christmas purchase each year is something that we both look forward to doing together. Added bonus: it takes off a lot of the pressure to buy all of the pretty, sparkly things that I want to take home with me every time I walk into a store.
So, for the rest of December, I thought it might be fun to take you on a little tour of some of the things that make our home feel like Christmas.

First up, the Christmas tree. How could we do it any other way?


If you click on the image to make it bigger, you'll see that it's kind of a mishmash of styles. We have some very traditional things going on, like the round baubles, and a few less traditional ones like the ribbon wrapped around the tree. Because Norwegian Christmas is hugely important to both of us, we have some very traditional Norwegian things too, like the woven paper hearts (which, in a fit of extreme adorableness, we made ourselves, thankyouverymuch!) and the Norwegian flags.


And no, that does not make us extreme nationalists and a threat to national security. :)
Lastly, my cute mama started a new Christmas tradition for us last year when we visited the Grand Canyon, and she bought us this little clay angel for our tree:


We liked the idea of adding ornaments from our travels so much that when we were in Stockholm earlier this year, we bought this hand-blown glass bauble and carefully transported it all the way home again.


It's a great way of buying something to remember your trip by without ending up with a barrage of fridge magnets or touristy t-shirts. Of course, now I love how it catches the light, and already have an ambition to go back to Stockholm and buy it a couple of siblings.

And finally, lest you think we're all ethnic, hand-made and internationally awesome, we also made one of this year's Christmas purchases these ornaments:


Five dollars for a set of six. From Target. And I think they are beautiful.