DIY Christmas Tree – Cómo hacer un árbol de Navidad
Two and a half years ago my brother and sister in law moved to Illinois. In all that time, I was never able to visit them. In September, I decided to rectify that and bought a plane ticket for Thanksgiving break. Then, our lives changed drastically just before Thanksgiving. Douglas convinced me to go despite the fact that I would have to leave him and the boys for the holiday. They spent the day with part of my family on Long Island, while I was with other family in Illinois.
Hace dos años y medio mi hermano y cuñada se mudaron a Illinois y en todo el tiempo que ha pasado no les he visitado. En septiembre decidí rectificar eso y compré el pasaje de avión para ir a verlos durante las vacaciones del Día de la Acción de Dar Gracias, pero nuestras vidas cambiaron drásticamente justo antes de ese día festivo. Douglas me convenció de que debería ir a pesar del hecho de que tendría que dejar a él con los muchachos. Ellos pasaron las vacaciones con parte de mi familia en Long Island mientras yo estaba con otros parientes en Illinois.
While shopping, we found a Christmas tree made out of twigs that they thought would look nice hanging in their picture window. I bought it for them for Christmas, but I forgot to take a good picture of it, so I had to crop this one out of a bigger picture. I apologize for the poor quality.
Un día fuimos de compras y encontramos un arbolito de navidad hecho de ramitas de árboles y pensábamos que sería bonito colgando en su ventana panorámica. Yo se lo compré a ellos para la Navidad, pero se me olvidó sacar una foto del arbolito y tuve que cortar esta foto de una más grande. Siento la mala calidad de la foto.
I decided that we should make another one to hang in the other window for symmetry. Jeremy brought the twigs in from the yard. Sometimes it pays to have a lot of trees on your yard – when you have to rake your leaves, not so much! I measured and cut them to size with a saw blade on a small pocket knife. I would recommend using a pair of clippers, but my brother did not have any.
Decidí que deberíamos hacer otro abolito para colgar a la derecha por la simetría. Jeremy buscó las ramitas de los árboles en su jardín. A veces conviene tener muchos árboles en el jardín – cuando hay que rastrillar las hojas, ¡no tanto! Yo medí y corté las ramas con la hoja de sierra de una navaja de bolsillo. Recomendaría usar unas recortadoras de setos, pero mi hermano no tenía.
Next I laid out the twigs on the floor to see how it would look.
Después, coloqué las ramas en el suelo en la forma que quería.
Then I strung the twine to see how much we would need.
Entonces, medí la cuerda para ver cuánto hacía falta.
My sister helped with the next step, because it would have been a lot harder to accomplish with just one set of hands. One of us would hold the twigs in place, while the other twisted the twine around the branches and tied it.
Mi hermana me ayudó con el siguiente paso, pero hubiera sido mucho más difícil con sólo un par de manos. Una de nosotras mantenía las ramitas en sitio mientras la otra envolvía la cuerda en la rama y la ataba.
The final touch was a ball placed on top. I just slipped the twine through, so the ball can be removed and replaced with something else at any time.
El toque extra fue una bolita arriba del arbolito. Sólo pasamos la cuerda por el gancho así que la bolita se puede quitar en cualquier momento y se puede reemplazar con otro adorno si les da la gana.
Earlier that day we had gone to a tree farm to cut down the tree. I voted for a bigger one, but Jeremy really wanted the small one, and it is for his house.
Más temprano ese día habíamos ido a una finca para cortar el árbol de Navidad. Yo escogí uno más grande, pero a Jeremy le gustaba uno más pequeño y como es para su casa y no la mía…
While Jeni and I were making the twig and twine tree, everyone else was decorating the tree. Can you tell what Christmas movie we were watching at the time?
Mientras Jeni y yo hacíamos el arbolito de cuerda y ramitas, los otros adornaban el árbol. ¿Sabes qué película mirábamos?
I love the angel and Thing 1 on the top of the tree. Those are to represent Jeremy and Laura.
Me encantan el angel y la Cosa Número Uno del Dr. Seuss. Representan a Jeremy y Laura.
The tree is small but beautiful.
El árbol es pequeño pero bonito.
I love the view from their back porch.
Me encanta la vista del porche detrás de la casa.
It was a special trip. I missed my boys, all three of them, but it was good to finally see where my brother and sister in law are living and catch up with some friends I haven’t seen in a long time.
Fue un viaje especial para mí, aunque mis tres muchachos me hacían falta. Estaba feliz de por fin ver donde viven mi hermano y cuñada y pasar tiempo con unos amigos que no había visto por mucho tiempo.
And when I arrived back in NY, Batman and Spiderman were at the airport waiting for me.
Y cuando volví a NY, Batman y Spiderman me estaban esperando en el aeropuerto.
Happy Homemaking!
¡Espero que todos tus sueños caseros se cumplan!
that is so awesome! love your twig tree. their house looks so beautiful – love the big windows! love batman & spider man greeting you at the airport – they look so happy! 🙂 <3 🙂
They do have a beautiful house, and that gorgeous picture window looks out over a pond behind a golf course. It is idyllic. It was nice to get away from the boys for a couple of days, but I missed them and was happy to see them too!
Think that would make me a front runner for husband of the year… 🙂
You are already husband of the year!
I’m so glad you could get away for this special visit! Looks like your brother has a cool midcentury house. Love the pic of Batman and Spiderman!
His house is very cool. You should have seen how the family that sold it to him had it set up. It was completely accurate for the time period.
Your post just exudes the spirit of Christmas. So happy the boys are adjusting so well. Douglas is a rock star! Jo @ Let’s Face the Music.
I am so relieved that the boys are adjusting well. I thought that they might have a hard time when I left, but they seemed to take it in stride and were excited to talk via Skype every day. We thought that it would be a good lesson for them to learn that sometimes people go away and come back, since up to now they have had more experience with people disappearing forever.
It looks like you had a lovely Thanksgiving.
And, I am loving the twig tree!
Happy Christmas!