It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I love artificial trees for their convenience. There is nothing easier than pulling out my tree from it's bag, fluffing it a little and having it pre-lit. I put up 5 trees up every year and there is just NO WAY that we are going to string lights each year! Plus I have lots of really heavy ornaments that just weigh down real trees too much.

Here is my living room tree.

While I love all the easy things that artificial trees have to offer, I kind of miss walking through the tree lot looking for the perfect one. One year we went up the mountain and cut one down ourselves. It was sooo much fun. The kids built a snowman and we drank hot chocolate while we were getting it. I also love the smell of real trees.

My next door neighbors cut their own tree every year. And without fail, every year it is a MASSIVE tree. And every year I walk outside and I say to Ryan, my neighbor, "Hey Griswold, where do you think you're gonna put a tree that big?" And every year he says back, "Bend over and I'll show ya!" Then we laugh at our own stupid humor.

Here is the tree in my bedroom.

This year I told Ryan and Jamie to let me know when they got their tree up so that I could come over and smell it! Jamie said, "Well geez, we have like 1/3 of the tree left sitting out in the driveway still. Go help yourself to it. Take it in your house and decorate it! Then you can smell it all the time."

Well I really didn't want ANOTHER tree, but it did give me a good idea. I went out and cut some of the branches off of it. I trimmed the bottoms to a stick and stuffed them in one of the many vases that I have lying around the house.

I went over to the local flower shop and bought some white lilly's (my most favorite flower!) and I put them in the vase. Then I added some brown berry buds. I really wanted red holly berry but they were out, so I just had to settle for the brown.

I tied a ribbon around the vase and it is now my table centerpiece. ( I made one for Ryan and Jamie too since they let me have the pine branches)

If I had it to do over again, I would put some of those clear, red or white glass beads in the bottom of the vase first. If you decide to make one of your own remember a couple of rules:

-Always decorate in odd numbers. Whether you are decorating a tree, or putting flowers in a vase. For example, if you make this arrangement, either put 3 or 5 lilly's in the vase. Not 2 or 4. Same with the holly berry. Odd numbers!

-Another thing, lilly's can be fragile, their buds can break off easily so be careful handling them.

-Keep the water in the vase full so that your arrangement will last as long as possible.

-And lastly, I picked lilly's not only because they are my favorite flower but because they last long. The buds will continue to bloom and they have a strong smell. (only downfall is that they are a little expensive) The berries will last a long time and so will the pine branches. You can always substitute berries for red carnations. They last a long time too.