O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

The girls get a Christmas tree all their own this year.  I cut it out of felt and they are able to move the ornaments around all they want.  I got the idea from a friend and it is so much fun for them. 

 

I bought a 3' x 3' square of green felt at Michael's and cut the bottom triangle out.  Then, with the two leftover triangle scraps, I made the top half of the tree.  It is held on the wall with double sided tape, which works well as long as little fingers don't try to tug it off.  And when that happens smoothing it back down and sometimes a little more tape fixes the problem.  And my friend tells me from experience that after the first week, they stop trying to pull it off the wall.

 

I started off simple with the ornaments because I wasn't sure how well they would stick to the tree.  The balls are just made from bright colored felt and when you press it against the felt tree, it stays put pretty well.   I was thinking of decorating the balls with glitter, but keeping them plain so far has worked out well.  The girls get to practice their colors with them.  For Miss D every ball is blue and occasionally purple or orange when she feels like changing things up. 

 

Miss T doesn't usually say the colors but she shows a ball to me over and over again so I repeat what color it is.  It is neat to watch them learn.  

 



For the family Christmas tree, I will get one of those little rosemary trees for our table.  We'll be able to use the rosemary for cooking and if I take good care of it (my track record is not great but there is always the hope it can stay alive) we can use it again next year.  We'll save getting a big tree with breakable ornaments until the munchkins are older.