This year I’m keeping Christmas decor simple — all white and green with lots of twinkle lights! I bought a flocked tree (which I’m crazy about), added quite a few strands of garland and aimed to add a strand of lights wherever possible. It’s amazing how magical they make the evening time.

We’ve actually never bought a tree before this one. We used a tiny tree my grandma gave me for a few years, then my parents gave us their large hand-me-down artificial tree that we’ve used for years now. And destroyed. So we finally bought this flocked beauty. And it’s pre-lit. Hooray!

Last year as I put lights around a giant tree, the top kept falling down. The boys had light sabers and were battling, running in circles around me. And I was trying to keep myself from yelling and swearing in front of the kids. It was not the family tradition I dreamed of. In fact, my neighbor said she saw the nonsense from her window and was laughing! I shut the blinds this year.

So last week I bucked the cherished family tradition from generations past and decorated this tree all by myself. In fact, even Marcello was asleep on the couch (our kids have still not recovered from the time change and he gets the brunt of it). Actually that was the day I drove across the state to see my beloved grandpa. He is not well and I mostly likely will not see him again. We got to say sweet goodbyes with lots of tears and talk of Heaven.

When I got home, feeling quite melancholy, I turned on some beautiful old hymns and decorated the magically pre-lit tree. I sang and prayed for my grandpa. It was truly lovely. Is it bad to have a new decorate-the-tree-all-by yourself-really -late-at-night tradition? Haha!

It’s all white and silver, as you can see. To keep costs down, most of the ornaments are from the Dollar Tree (which I’ll talk more about next week) and I spray painted my red beads white.

I have officially turned into my mother and eat every word I ever said as a child about her distaste for colored lights and having a themed tree! I even did the same thing as she did and gave the kids their own tree with colored lights that my grandpa sent home with me. They love it.

I admit to being a Christmas tree decorating novice. I had to Google “how to decorate a Christmas tree” and there it was, filler. Did you know about filler? You probably did. It’s so fun and adds so much to the tree!

JoAnn Fabrics had 60 percent off holiday decor the week before Thanksgiving and so I bought 10 strands of garland and two bundles of this pretty filler for the Christmas tree. (And now you know how I shot these photos from my flat lay secrets post!)

I used five strands of garland on the window above the dining room table, three above the kitchen cabinets, one on the table and one under the TV.

The little white houses and bottle brush trees (both $3) are from the Target dollar spot.

Remember in the early 2000s when everyone kind of had their one color in the kitchen and such? Well, mine was red. We had red kitchen utensils, red pot holders, even a red couch. I’m still phasing out red things around here! I burned myself out of all things crimson, and I realized that’s why I’m always wanting to take Christmas decorations down early. So this year I just put out all things white, green, silver and sparkly. And that’s the psychoanalysis behind the no red this year.

I honestly don’t know how professional fancy bloggers do a real holiday tour. I’m always curious how much they spend, how they store all the things and how they keep their kids from messing with stuff. It’s amazingly hard to have this wide open space in perfect condition to take pictures! I have to shoo the kids out, bribe them with candy, shoot quick and hope that a baby doll’s leg isn’t sticking out from underneath the couch. In my pictures there are cords in weird spots and messed beads on the tree that I don’t see until after the picture is already snapped.

I am a blogger — not sure how professional I am — but I’ll try to be be transparent. I’m sharing my Christmas budget with decor, gifts, everything next Thursday. And I keep all my indoor Christmas stuff in four bins. Maybe five after all the garland I just bought!

This year, since our new tree is pre-lit (picture me doing cartwheels), I have extra twinkle lights and patience, so I poked them in all over the house. It’s so cozy and festive at night. I’m not sure who likes it more, the kids or me. Probably me.

How many trees do you have? Do you decorate before Thanksgiving or take it slow? What is your favorite decoration? Do you wish I would stop trying to psychoanalyze you now?