A Little Girl's Christmas Tree

When the Mr's work first brought us to ABQ, I always thought it would be a temporary deal.  We landed in this desert in the middle of winter, right after Christmas.  I specifically remember the movers asking me to turn on the oven and open it's door to warm up the place. 

We were in a new city, with no friends and no knowledge of the area.  So, we moved when our lease was up to better accomodate our family. Then moved again. And again.  Always at the end of December.  After renting 4 different homes in 3 years, we finally bit the bullet and bought a place of our own.  It's been a blessing in so many ways, but that's a story for another post.

And the point of this post?  Oh right.

After our 2nd house, there was a 90% chance that we would be heading overseas for work.  James would go ahead of us for a few months and then we would join him in Abu Dhabi.  The timing was so lovely.....our lease was up before the contact had the final stamp of approval.  Not totally sure what was happening, we stuffed our belongings into a POD (and gave another POD full of stuff away) and headed out to party crash my parents in CA over the holidays.

Since we knew we would be moving from that house either, we decided not to pull out all the Christmas decorations, just to pack them right back up when our lease expired on Dec 31st.  But Mia was 2 and we didn't want to rob the poor kid of any and all Christmas cheer.    So, we got a little tree and let her pick out some fun ornaments.  At 2 years old she was already drawn like a magnet to anything pink.

The tree has remained Mia's and finds a special spot in her room each year.  This year we decided to get another one for the boys.....well, the boys actually got Mia's old green tree and Mia got a new white one.  Don't worry.  The boys were totally thrilled and oblivious to getting gypped in a younger-sibling-hand-me-down deal.

And after the longest intro ever (believe me, you got the edited version), here's Mia's tree in all her girly glory...

We cleared a spot for it on the table in her reading nook...and now need to install some sort of electric barrier system for the boys.  Kidding.  Sort of.

I snagged this sweet little snowgirl on clearance at the end of last season - blond like my Mia.   The tree skirt she's sitting on is actually Mia's first tutu (size 2) that I found at the bottom of her dress up bin.  I'm a purging/give-away machine, but I couldn't part with it...

 This stackable snowman is from my parent's cabin and was a favorite of the little ones each year.

 Here's the cute unstacked family. 

This one is the smallest and holds the *surprise*......

...Mr Penguin!

 We have a nativity set of these that Jack is just obsessed with too.

Most of the ornaments are pink and silver

With a few princesses thrown in the mix

 We also have Mia's very first stocking that she now hangs in her room.  It's taken over the daily outfit hanger spot for now. 

The kids love having a few special Christmas touches in their own rooms.  I try to edit down our ornaments at the end of each season but this also helps us to spread load the special ornaments we get each year throughout the home.  And gives me a few more areas for adult decor :)


I would love to know....how do you incorporate kid's Christmas decorations?  Do you have any items that you display in a special way for you or your family?   Whose house is totally decorated?  We're about halfway there!