Friday, December 7, 2012

O Christmas Tree

I was inspired by Rachel to do a post about our Christmas trees and ornaments.  Our Christmas trees and decor have evolved over the years.  When we celebrated our first Christmas, I was excited to go out and buy new stuff since neither of us had brought anything from home/childhood.  We started off with one Christmas tree and it was blue and white snowman themed (I couldn't find a good picture). 
 
The next year, I fell in love with some colorful garland and started a second tree that I just LOVE (pictured at the bottom of this post).  I had a miniature tree that we used for ornaments that we received as gifts, but didn't match the "theme" of the trees.  After Bryce was born, I felt a void without the standard traditional sentimental tree.  I decided to forgo the snowman tree and started a family tree.  I was able to get some childhood ornaments from my mom and we also had lots of ornaments we had been given over time.  There were some ornaments from the snowman tree that I decided to use too, including the topper (maybe I'll attempt a ribbon bow next year). 
 
 
Our old house was much smaller and in order to fit both of my trees, we opted for the slim trees.  I feel like the slim tree is too small in the new house.  Our other tree is a little shorter and fuller and would have looked better in the living room.  Here are some of my favorite ornaments on this tree.
 

1. The baby's first Christmas teddy bear was mine from 1982.

 
2. The wreath ornament with my name on it was from my second Christmas.  I was one of those southern (two name) girls named after my grandmothers!

 
3. The bears in the bed came from a church bazaar from my grandparent's church when I was younger. This one was always one of my favorites.

 
4. I have a great aunt who gave me an ornament each year for Christmas and they were usually carousel themed. I have lots of these!

 
5. Who doesn't remember Raggedy Ann?!? I have a matching Andy too. Don't you just love the cloth, hand stitched ornaments from back then!
 
Ornaments like these next ones are definitely reasons for needing a tree that wasn't themed. Jason's interests are clearly different than mine and ornaments he was given surely didn't match our tree themes!

 
 6. Some friends from church gave Jason the hunting duck because they know his love for these things.
 
7. Jason's uncle gave him the shot gun shell ornament.
 
8. I gave Jason the mustang mach 1 (he insisted I be specific) ornament because of his love for old fast cars.
 
These next few are some of my more recent favorites.

 
9. A good friend gave me the "W" ornament for Christmas last year. I just love the personal touch!

 
10. Last year one of my students gave me the Hanover tomato ornament. You have not had a tomato unless you've had one grown in our county. They are famous in these parts!

 
11. I used to have an obsession with the s'mores ornaments. I got this teacher one because, well, that's what all first year teachers do. And then you get tons of teacher ornaments from students and you wonder why you ever bought one, ha! Actually I only got a few teacher ornaments and they were pretty cute!

 
12. The baby bottle was for Bryce's first Christmas. He has a couple from his first Christmas.  Little Emmy girl doesn't have one for her first Christmas yet!  It's my goal to have an ornament with the year on it each year for the kids.  I would love to pass them on to them when they have their own trees one day (but totally don't want to think about that right now).

 
13. Macy puppy has been celebrating Christmas with us since 2005. She has a few of her own ornaments on the tree. 
 
I just love how the colorful tree looks in our dining room (just wish I had used the taller slimmer tree).  Most of the ornaments came from Target, but I found a tree skirt at Pier 1 that matches perfectly!   
 
How many trees do you have?  Are they traditional or themed? 
 

1 comment:

Sara said...

I love having a family tree. I think it's so important to have those memories around us during the holidays. I absolutely LOVE showing the kids ornaments from when I was little :-) Also, since both of John's parents have passed away, I want to keep as many memories alive for him as I can this time of year. I do have a smaller themed tree in the living room, but it's strictly for decoration. Our family tree is where Santa leaves the goodies ;-) Love both of yours - they look great!