This is our second Christmas as a married couple, which means we should have some Christmas traditions to carry over from last year, right? Well, I think our only tradition is a kind of strange one. Last year, we lived in a teeny-tiny apartment (400-square-feet), so we didn’t have room for a Christmas tree. Instead, we picked up a Christmas wreath and hung it above our couch (and by couch, I mean loveseat. The apartment was way too small to accommodate a full sofa.) We decorated our wreath with ornaments, which occasionally fell on our heads as we watched TV.
This year, we live in a significantly bigger apartment, but we decided we kind of liked the whole Christmas wreath idea. I think we might stick with the Christmas wreath until we live in a real house of our own. Or until we have too many ornaments for a wreath.
We really wanted to get our wreath at a Christmas tree farm (we got ours at Huber’s last year), so on Saturday, we ventured out to a farm. Saturday was probably the weirdest day to participate in Christmas activities, due to the sunny skies and 65 degree temperature. Still, we put on the Matt Wertz Christmas album and pretended we weren’t using the air conditioning. As we pulled up to the Christmas tree farm, we saw a man driving down the street in a convertible with the top down and a Christmas tree in the backseat. Oh, December in Kentucky…
We wanted a simple, plain wreath that we could decorate ourselves, but couldn’t find one at the first Christmas tree farm. So we headed down the street to another farm, where we came up empty-handed again.
So we went to Lowes and bought a wreath.
We brought it home, turned on some Christmas music, and decorated our apartment for Christmas. This took all of five minutes, as our only Christmas decorations are the wreath, stockings (I made them myself!), and a super awesome nativity scene from Africa. We tried to make a fake fireplace of sorts in our apartment to make it seem more like Christmas. We’ll see how that goes. I think we’ve mostly created a huge fire hazard between the falling pine needles and the open flame.
I suppose I should take a second to talk about these Christmas stockings. I really wanted us to have plaid stockings. And I was convinced that I should make them myself. Due to my complete lack of crafting skills, this was a bit more difficult than anticipated. But with the help of my sister (the craft queen), and some encouragement from the husband, I finally finished our first set of stockings! They are two different plaids, with gold letters painted onto burlap. I sewed the burlap onto the stockings with embroidery floss (once again, thanks go to my sister for providing the tools). And I sewed some cream ribbon loops on the top to use for hanging purposes. In the end, I’m pretty satisfied. And I’m pretty pumped for Christmas.
So that’s the Ringer family Christmas tradition, for now.
In other news, we went to an ugly Christmas sweater party this weekend. We selected our outfits at Goodwill a few hours before the party, so they aren’t the best. But they inspired us to take a few awkward family photos that I will now gladly share with you.
May your holiday season be significantly less awkward than ours.
-Ally
Betsy Ringer says
You guys are such a hoot!! Miss you so much – especially now!
Be sure to check out the Christmas Parade pictures on FB. Instead of prison guards marching, and Shriners in little cars, and tractors – they had woodies (old surf cars with wood on the sides), bands marching with lights on hats and drums, and kids on scooters with lights. It was really fun.
Missed missed MISSED going to Hubers!!!
Rachel Tweet says
So I just wanted to say: You two are one of the cutest couples. I am kicking myself that I never really got to know you when we were at Sambica. If I lived anywhere near you, I would definitely bug you continually until we became friends :). I love your blog and just thought I’d let you know if I’m ever near the KY area we should have coffee or something.
ericandally says
Aww, thanks, Rachel! You’re too nice! If you’re ever in Kentucky, come on over!