Wishing Spools & Christmas Trees

I wanted to make this craft I found online. So, today, my siblings and I made it after Stake Conference. But, in order to properly display and take photos of the final product, we needed a Christmas tree background. So, naturally, we decided to put up our Christmas tree. (Now, before you start getting worked up about Christmas before Thanksgiving, hear me out...)

First of all, Thanksgiving and Christmas go hand in hand. It is Thanksgiving that helps to ring in the Christmas season and it all just rolls into one. You can't have Christmas without Thanksgiving and you can't have Thanksgiving without Christmas. We didn't forget about Thanksgiving. We LOVE Thanksgiving! But, we also love Christmas. To me, Thanksgiving and Christmas are one big season to enjoy. So, why not enjoy them together? :)

Second of all, we are not going to decorate this tree until after Thanksgiving anyway. Until then, it is just a regular (fake) tree that beautifies our living room.

Here come the photos (beware, there is a lot!).

Hank decided to help. He made these directions last year.

Our tree in parts.

An Arizona Christmas tree. Only a stick and some leaves. We were joking that if we left it like that Santa would bring enough gifts to fill the bottom of the tree.

We decided that an ugly, wimpy tree wasn't worth the risk. So, we kept going.

I wanted to be in this picture too...

Little by little it rose!

All done!!

Next, I needed photos of the wishing spools for the blog. After all, that was the whole point wasn't it?? Actually, I just tricked them into helping me since I wanted a decent background. They had no idea the photos were coming up.

And all I've got to say is...poor Jeri.

Apparently, wishing spools on a tree in an ill-lit room with Jonna's camera was a difficult task.

So, I took pictures of Jeri taking pictures just to show everyone how dedicated Jeri is to her photography.

I must say, it was amusing to watch.

Addie was a bit uncomfortable about the situation.

But, thanks to Jeri's undying dedication to photography, we have a few non-blurry(ish) photos to post of our wishing spools. And, for the record, the blurry ones are mine...

Here is Addie's spool

Can you tell which one is A.J.'s, Jeri's, or Carla's?

Don't cheat and look at Jeri's name tag!

And, here is mine.

Not that impressive, but it was fun to do! And, since we had a long afternoon following Stake Conference, it was a fun family activity.

By the way, Hank will have one made for him too :)