Bipety Bopety Boo...Alakazam, Alakazoo - that's how you make Christmas magic!

We love our Christmas Tree! A lot of prep went into it. Meury and I worked really hard getting everything ready. There were: bows to tie, string to thread through each bow and each bobble, lights to prep and check, flowers to cut, tree top bow to make. Not rocket science, but nothing to sneeze at either. You try making 20+ bows that have to be the exact same size and shape. Symmetry, that's the key word when decorating a tree. No wholes, no double bobbles, nothing can be repeated too close together.

Anyway, here are the pictures of our progress:This is me threading string through each bow in order to make it easier to tie them on to the tree.

...Here I'm snipping and prepping and making sure it's all perfect before moving on to the next thing.And voila, 2+ hours and 3 Christmas CDs later, we have magic - our very own recipe. The tree consists of: purple bobbles in 2 sizes and 3 different textures (glittery, shiny smooth, shiny matte), silver bows all the same size and shape, 4 butterflies (3 white with silver and purple details, and one all white and glorious), 6 white and silver angels, 450 lights, silver flowers (small flowers in small bunches), purple flowers (baby's breath), big thick white satin ribbon with silver detailing on the sides (almost Grecian looking), thinner silver almost translucent ribbon, both cascading down the sides as well as making up the big bow on the top of the tree. Also on the top of the tree: 2 bobbles, one butterfly, baby's breath in lilac and silver flowers.

There you have it. This year we got all new things and had a serious Christmas Tree makeover. But usually we just get a couple of items here and there that change the entire look of the tree. That way you get a new tree every year, with minimal expense. Even though we got all new decorations for the tree this year, we didn't really spend much because we we to Saara to get them. That's the Arab/Chinese/Korean section of town where everything is 1/3 the price, but you pay in other ways. It's very, very, very crowded with people trying to economize on their Christmas shopping, most are low class, it can be a little bit dangerous, smells bad, you need to sort through a lot of junk to find the treasures, it's tiring, and last but not least, it's 1,000 degrees hotter than anywhere else in the city even when it rains. Regardless, it's totally worth it and we do it every single year.

Cheers!...and let me know how your tree turned out! Have a beautiful, magical day!