Ornaments Everywhere!!

WOW!  We have been so busy around here, we just got the Christmas tree up.  This is only about 3 weeks later than normal for us... we are traditionally Thanksgiving Weekend Tree-Decorators.  I decided I didn't want to deal with the headache of a full-blown decorating scheme this year, so we decided to go simple.  I have to say, I have NOT regretted it in the least!!  You know the stress of making the house & the tree & everything look "perfect" every year?  I decided to scrap "perfect" and go for "simple" and "fun".   Guess what??? IT IS PERFECT!!!!!!!!   I know, the irony kills me. 

Instead of dragging all the boxes of decorations & ornaments out of the attic this year, we got out the tree and a few of our favorite things, and called it good.   We made home made salt-dough ornaments for the tree instead of spending hours unboxing & unwrapping all the regular ornaments.  Here's the recipe we used:

Salt Dough Ornaments

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water
2 tsp. vegetable oil


Mix all ingredients.  Knead well.  Roll out & cut with cookie cutters.  Bake at 300° for 25-30 minutes.

I used a straw to poke holes in the ornaments before we baked them.  The kids had fun making & painting them. Even Gramma, Aunt Jenn & Uncle Eric came over to help. :)

Some of them we painted, some we used glitter glue to decorate, some we used both!   All told, we had close to 75 ornaments out of that one recipe.  

We ended up with two tree toppers on our tree, because each of the boys had made one at church last weekend. and of course you can't choose one and not the other... :)