Star light, Star bright, The first star I see tonight...

I really enjoyed dressing up our new home for the holidays this year. I had picked up an abundance of decorating supplies during the after Christmas sales of 2009, where everything was 90% off (super-duper SCORE!)

As I strung the lights across the roof-line, my kids danced across the front lawn... singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman"... we had so much fun! Of course it was day-time when we decorated... so we would have to wait until night fall to delight in our display! That evening, we were heading over to my parent's home for the yearly gathering to decorate the "Regal Buckingham Tree" (a fantastic event that includes many delightful traditions that I will have to blog about in detail at a later date :P) Before we left for the evening, I turned on all of our lights, making sure that we would be greeted with all of the wonderful holiday cheer upon our return home.

After all of the evening's festivities were complete, we invited our family members to take a tour of all the Christmas lights in the neighborhood, with it all culminating with a drive down our street. But as we came closer to the curve in the street that leads to our home, we began to see a glow. A glow that became brighter and brighter as we approached...

Once we finally made it around the bend, we couldn't believe our eyes... (Or perhaps it was that we could no longer use our eyes... suffering from a temporary blindness, similar to that of staring at the sun for a brief amount of time!) Our house was lit up like the 4th of July!!!

I have attempted to mute the brightness by running garland around the lights, but it has not really had the dampening affect that I had hoped for...

Meanwhile, we are spreading, what I can only refer to as "Extreme Holiday Cheer," and I will continue to cross my fingers that we do not give the sweet elderly couple that lives across the street, heart attacks every night when we plug our lights in!

Zen and the Art of Holiday Madness

I spent a good part of last week pulling boxes out of the attic. Boxes and boxes and boxes of holiday decorations... and I loved every moment of it! Dusting off each box and carefully extracting it's contents... feeling the emotions that each item held in my heart... taking the time to really enjoy these special trinkets that I only get to see for a few weeks every year. It's kind of similar to visiting loved ones who live far away, every moment that you have together seems that much more special.

Our holiday decorations include family heirlooms that have been part of many generations of our families' celebrations. Every year we have added a little bit more to our collection by making crafts and finding unique items that fit our quirky style. Our Christmas tree tells a story... a story of where we have been, what we have loved, what we have lost, what we dream of and what we cherish most.

Billy and I both have numerous ornaments from the trees of our childhood. The one pictured above is one of my favorites! My aunt (not technically my aunt, but I always thought of her as one) made a few of these for me. They are so delicate and beautiful, and I can't imagine my tree being complete without them!

My newest favorites consist of the home-made items that my kids have created. Tanner loves art! What I really meant to say is... TANNER LOVES ART!!! I have an abundance of beautiful pieces that she has made through the years. Tucker has made a few items too, but Tanner has made enough to fill her own tree! The ornament pictured above was created completely by her, the concept, the coloring and the detail, were all her own. She made it for me a couple of years ago, it's an ice cream cone (so special because not only is it beautiful but it is also my favorite treat of all time!)

These treasured ornaments were made by my mom. She made these framed pictures for Bill and I the year we were married. Like a piece of stained glass, they have an antique look, fitted with a photo from years past. I misplaced these once while packing up all the Christmas decorations and we missed them for the following 3 years... those trees seemed naked without them! Thankfully (gratefully) they were found!

Now I know what you may be thinking here... "What the heck does Spiderman have to do with X-mas?" and the answer (of course) is.... "Everything!!! at least when Tuck was 3 years old it sure did! Spiderman toys predominated his list to Santa, Spiderman pj's were worn to bed, Spiderman books were read every night. So it only seemed right, that Spiderman should be hanging (upside down of course) from our Christmas tree! Awwww, the memories!

(I should also note that we have quite the abundant supply of Barbie, Hello Kitty and Sports related ornaments hanging from out tree too!!!)

This ornament commemorates an especially wonderful trip to Disneyland. The trip in which the entire Koning clan was able to take over "The Happiest Place on Earth" all together! We had such a wonderful time, and one of our favorite memories from that family vacation was the discovery of the "Hidden Mickey" (this is a beloved pass time still to this day, and btw, you do not have to be at Disneyland in order to find a Hidden Mickey, they are EVERYWHERE!!! scroll back up 3 pictures to the ornament Tanner made for me, to see what I mean :)

Please allow me to introduce you to "Zombie Clause." (This is what happens when I let my husband play with crafting supplies intended for the kids. Nuff said.)

This little guy reminded me of the characters from the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas." That is one of our all-time favorite X-mas movies. I couldn't imagine a holiday season without it!

and my wish from my childhood still holds true...