thy branches are so lovely

I am fairly certain that I would be best friends with the people whose blogs I read. I mean, the bestest friends. Sharing stories, lunch dates, twinsies blog posts, sounds like super fun, right? Every time I refer to these people as my friends my mother gets quite annoyed. "Emily! They are not your friends! They don't even know who you are. You sound weird." Chyeah, Mary Caroline. Whatever. Don't be jealous one day when I start hanging out with my blogger peeps and somehow forget to mention my mom!

I say all this for a reason, of course. One of the blogs I follow is doing a guest post everyday about Christmas trees. The posts feature short stories and pictures of how people decorate their trees and why they love them. This idea is fabulous and I have to steal all fabulous ideas so...meet the Moore family Christmas tree!

Every year our tree is literally a vomit of ornaments. Let me tell ya, it is an experience. Our tree theme is different from the usual color or ornament genre themes that most people do. The theme is The Story of the Russ Moore Family (circa 1983). One look at this baby and you get a gist of our lives. Each year Joseph, Ann, and I get a new ornament--MC created this tradition so that when we move away from home we have already established our own little ornament collection (That women, such a genius).

When we moved into this house almost 15 years ago we got a bad case of high ceiling fever and went out and bought a 12 ft. tree. While Russell and MC have put their feet hehe down and we've taken it down a few feet, Ann and I refuse to let the tree get below a 9 footer. Hellooooo, I still have the high ceiling fever and it is not going away.

We have the picture ornaments:

Handmade (and so beautiful) ornaments from a young Joseph, Emily, and Ann:

Handmade (and actually beautiful) ornaments cross-stitched by MC:

Handmade ornaments form years and years of ornament parties:

A plethora (+more) or ballet ornaments:

Ornaments for my own grown-up collection (some obvious great choices, cough Luke Skywalker cough):

City of Newnan ornaments that sit up high on the tree:

Ornaments from Ann's pig obsession and J's cat obsession (I had normal Queen Amidala obsessions...):

Just downright pretty ornaments:

Uncle John also spends hours putting strand after strand of lights on the tree. He starts this process by wrapping the trunk in lights. This ends with Russ Moore huffing and puffing and cutting off the lights every end of December. But that is a story for another time...

Basically, year after year, this tree is the best. Even if it isn't 12 ft. tall, I still manage to find room in my heart to love love love it. Doesn't it just make you want to smile and sing and be all Christmas-y forever and ever?

Merry 13 days until Christmas!!