O Christmas Tree(s)

Peeking in the living room window from the yard, you can see that the outside has come inside and a tree is in residence.

The tree has been set up and smell of real pine is escaping from the living room. We traditionally go out the first Friday of December to get the tree, then set it up and decorate it the next day.  We try to make a party of it, but this year it was just Gloria and me doing the decorating.  Gloria sits on the couch unwrapping the ornaments (most of them still in their original boxes) and everyone else (me) puts them on the tree.

Before any ornaments, I weave in the lights.  I put on a lot of lights, and weave them in and out from the trunk to the outer branches. This give a great depth to the tree and the lights. It's a trick I learned from my brother when we were still decorating our Mother's tree. The angel on top is another family tradition we've had for more years than I can remember, but the lights still work and she still graces the top of our tree every year.

We always start with two special ornaments, they were bought in the hospital when Jacob was born and they are always the first two to go on the tree; even now - 29 years later. After those two, it's full steam ahead.  We do have a few predominate themes; Santas, dogs, and trains. There are plenty of other ornaments as well, but those are the three most common.

We have been building our collection of ornament since our honeymoon.  While we were on our honeymoon we found a Christmas shop and bought a particularly pretty ornament. Since then we try to each get a special ornament every year.

We also got two ornaments each year for Jacob.  A couple years ago, when he had moved out of the house, we gave him 1/2 of his special ornaments (except for the ones from the hospital) so that he would have a starter collections for his tree.

We have also gotten ornaments to remember the international students and families we have hosted over the years. When we hang their ornaments on the tree we can remember the blessings of friends who are not with us this year.

We ended up with a smaller tree then usual this year so we had to pick and choose what to use, but every one has a memory associated with it.

And just for fun, we have started putting up a small tree in the family room. This is the second year, but it carries the decorations into the room where we actually spend most of our time.

On the wall behind it are pictures of all our fur-babies; adopted and fostered.