Oh Christmas Tree...

Here it is folks. After weeks of trying to convince my traditional husband to put the tree up early this year, he won and finally let me put it up the day after Thanksgiving. It was worth the wait.

I LOVE our Christmas tree. It's the perfect mix of style and sentiment. Our first Christmas together, we didn't have much in the way of ornaments, so we went to K-mart and purchased the Martha Stewart Christmas collection and had a very stylized tree that year. But as we've added to our brood and made new friends, we've also added more personalized ornaments making our tree something that I adore gazing at in the evenings. It's beautiful with it's mixture of orange, green and gold balls with my favorite Hallmark Keepsake and Willow Tree ornaments. Oh, and there is the token Redskins ornament for Paul and a Little Einstein's ornament that Eva added this year.

And I know many of you might think it strange that we have a Cardinal on top of our tree rather than the traditional angel or star, but Cardinals have been something near and dear to the Cortez family heart since long before I came into the picture. My mother in law sees Cardinals as a blessing and a sign of comfort for reasons that I'll tell you one day when I have her permission, so the cardinal on our tree is a way for us to honor her and her love of cardinals.

Oh and yes, those are wrapped presents under the tree. I'm tellin' you guys, once I put my mind to something I don't stop till I have it. The tree just wasn't complete to me without presents underneath, so after putting up and trimming the tree all morning, I wrapped every gift and put them underneath while the girls were napping. Paul thinks I'm anal retentive but I prefer organized and thorough...I'll let you be the judge.