Christmas decor at Casa Confident.

I'm going to be honest.

I just decorated our tree last night.

I know. I know. I know!

I'm going to claim my favorite (yet valid) excuse which is--I'm a working mom. Not only am I a working mom, but I'm a working teacher mom. Do you know how much junk teachers have to do at the end of a semester? Grades? Averaging? Christmas parties? Gift wrapping?

Did I mention that I have six parent volunteers I had to buy and bake presents for this year? Apparently second graders have highly involved parents because they are still little. And I couldn't do my job without their help! These precious moms mean the world to me, so I had to do a lot to show all six of them some love. (Two room mothers, three science moms, and one AR mom.)

Add in the fact that we threw away our seven year old wobbly tree last year. We couldn't agree on a tree for this year. Then it didn't even get purchased until last week, and at one point my husband graciously surprised me by putting it up last week. I just didn't have the time to decorate/coordinate/shop until yesterday.

But now, I present to you in all her glory....

The Casa Confident Christmas 2011 Tree!!

Isn't she preeeeetttty?

(Pic taken in iPhone using Instagram app. I love this picture despite it being a "phone picture"!)

She just glows in all her glory.

I decided I wanted to do a "theme" this year because I keep seeing it on Pinterest.

However, we're on a pretty tight budget this year (read: making up for the year I took off of work). It had to be a theme I could do with what I had. And I'm all about a challenge when it comes to decorating. So I looked at the ornaments I had, and I picked out only the ones that were blues, whites, and silvers.

I kind of took off this direction because this is our first "pre-lit" tree, and Mr. C bought (obviously) a white pre-lit tree. And I have a precious little boy.

Blue seems fitting, right? =)

Then I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday (I could live there!) to buy some other supplies for another project, and I found this ribbon (90 feet!) for $5 on sale. Whoo-hoo!

So I draped the tree in the ribbon after I trimmed it in blues and silvers.

My, how she sparkles at night!

I love Christmas. Wish I got this done sooner.
The other (only) Christmas decor we currently have up in our house is this masterpiece I made for twenty bucks after studying Pinterest pictures.

It's our "Merry Mail" Christmas card holder.

More on how I did this in the next post.

I was a little bit excited about the "after" version of the tree, but for true family memories I can't forget these two tree helpers!

Mr. C surprised me one day by purchasing and putting up the tree. I greatly needed his help tonight before he went to bed to put the star on top.

He worked with his other special helper Micah (towards bedtime as you can tell by the two fingers).

Mr. C topping the tree with his little helper playing with his toys.

(Is it bad that I use a laundry basket as his toy box?)

Then somebody wanted to get closer in on the action.

Until he realized the goody Mommy had in her hand (a camera) and headed straight for me!

Merry Christmas from the Confident family!