It’s hard to remember how or why it happened.  But for some reason, we inadvertently started a new Christmas tree decorating tradition a few years back.  After the kids went to bed one December night, my husband popped in the Love Actually DVD.  As we added lights and ornaments to our tree, one scene or another would make us stop for awhile, soak it in, and then continue decorating.  Eventually drinks were poured, and by the end of the movie we were sitting on the couch with empty wine glasses in hand, glowing by the light of our now-decorated tree and smiling at the message of the story.

We’ve done it that way every year since.

When it came time to decorate the tree this year, everything clicked into place and our tradition made sense.  By the end of this post hopefully I will have explained how Love Actually = a Christmas tree.

The new Pottery Barn catalog had arrived, and on one of those glossy pages they featured a $12 glittered photo frame ornament.  You know I only see such a thing as a challenge.  So I went about making my own version, which ended up being super lightweight on the tree (versus a heavy frame).  It’s probably silly to say, but these photo frames (which cost way less than $1 to make) are now by far my favorite frames ever.

Bee, Noodle, The Hubs, my nephew, sister, brother-in-law, parents, mother-in-law, uncle…

they all got the glitter treatment and hang lovingly among the branches of our tree.

I’ll post the tutorial here next week, but if you’d like to see it today then visit The CSI Project.  I’m guest posting there and as always would love if you’d stop by and say hello.

But… back to the movie.  As I stared at all those beautiful glittering faces of the ones most dear to me, the words “love actually is all around” kept running through my head.  How apropos that the movie and the ornaments went together, that my loves were all around our tree this year.  And I knew I had to take it one step further.

Enter the Love Actually garland.  After what felt like hours of stamping with my large lowercase alphabet stamps, I had my own handmade garland with that famous phrase.  Scattered around it were also the names of family members and also the word “blessed.”  It popped into my head as I was stamping, and obviously wanted to be included.

Now I have a tree dotted with photos of my sweeties and encircled by a garland full of love.

Look who I captured with my camera the other day as they watched The Grinch for the first time.

Love?  It actually IS all around.

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion… love actually is all around. 

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