It's a Wonder*Filled Christmas! {DayTWELVE}

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

a real, 9 ft. Christmas tree!

{whoops, didn't karate chop or arrange the pillows...eh well}

It's the very last day of 

It's a Wonder*filled Christmas! 

{sniffle, sniffle}

 Thank you all for stopping by and all of your lovely comments.

I want to keep it real and tell you there were no magical elves,
no babysitters, and so I need to thank my husband, Matt, for 
helping me find the time to put this whole twelve days together.


It took a lot of planning and organizing, and while it may not be
what is out there in blogland all fabulous {smile}.
It is my fabulous and it was hard work and yet so enjoyable too.
{In the midst of potty training four 2-year olds, this is maybe
what our tree should have looked like}...

And well our home has some new festive decor
and traditions to keep in years to come.  


OK back to the tree...
 

We are thrilled we have a real tree!  It's from a tree farm in Wisconsin,
we bought it through our church, they even dropped it off, perfect for us!!
We do have a couple more trees around, the artificial kind, 
this one is just so special to me this year.


With a real tree comes a tree stand, water, and little hands that want to play in said water.  I have seen trees in silver buckets, but I decided to paint and stencil this one to fit our decor a bit more.  Not only do I love it,
but I love that my only cost was paint!!


DAY TWELVE
{Stenciled Christmas Tree Bucket}

 It's the same bucket from the boys' first {little sailors} birthday seen in the last photo here.  I spray painted it, hand painted on a stencil and voila, there you have it!  The stand fits inside the bucket!!

We made a star for the top of our tree from a metallic and linen paper combo
using this tutorial.  Isn't it pretty?!

Onto one of my favorite things about the tree...

{Snowflake Mobile}

I love hanging decorations from the ceiling...it's magical and fun.  I usually hang them over our island or in the playroom, but decided to hang some snowflake ornaments I was not using over our tree.  Just a handful, so pretty.

 

All you need is the ornament, fishing wire, and thumbtacks.  I used white since our ceiling is white.  That's it.  E came down and said, "I LOVE it Mom!!!"
I knew he would!  

Of course I'll add in some gratuitous pictures of our tree and living room decor. 
I ditched our ribbon on this tree and went with some silvery beaded garland
we had from our apartment days more than ten years ago.  It sparkles so nicely!

{yes, present wrapping is up next!}

The ornaments on our Jesse Tree are growing.  Yesterday we found out more about who Jesse was and his youngest son David, E LOVED that!  

Wrapped this cardboard K and painted this little birdie silver.

No mantel {boo!} but still have a pretty place to display treasured 

photos of my handsome boys.

My favorite Christmas picture ever!!

OK, this is really our mudroom.  Yes it needs a jingle-bell wreath!

A special thank you to my sweet friends...

 Meg from Little Blue Prints

for this elegantly simple tree pillow tutorial. 

Rachel from Holy Craft

for this stunning ornament garland tutorial.

Holly from Heart Break Kids 
for this festive, kid-friendly craft.  


Thank you so very much for taking your time to post here,
I loved having you!  Head on over to see what other amazing-ness
they are up to!!


I'll catch you back here soon!  
I have a couple more projects up my sleeve,
I am so excited for Christmas Break...
and of course will have loads of pictures to share!


Oh, and I almost forgot to mention.
Later this week, giveaway, be here or be square.
It will be one to help you get organized for 2012 after toy-orama 2011!!

So..what was your favorite part of this series?  I'd love to know!


{michelle}

Linking up my stenciled bucket to these lovely parties and here...

The Nester