Monday, December 22, 2008

Decorating the Christmas Tree

...Finally!


I guess since we didn't trim the tree until yesterday (at Sam's request....and when your 20 yr. old son still wants to participate in the family traditions....that's a very good thing) we'll just have to keep it up 'til Valentines day....works for me.


Funny how putting up ornaments brings back such memories. Sadly, a lot of the kid-made ornaments have succumbed to the ravishes of time (most were made from salt dough and the cellar does not exactly provide archival conditions).
Every year we buy (ok, I buy) a new ornament....took us awhile to find one not made in China, but I love it (handmade in Peru). We try to remember where we were when we bought each ornament...several feature Disney scenes from our visits to the park.

One year my Mom bought each of the kids an ornament with their name on it...sort of. Wilson has always been a bit left out of the personalized items craze ...key chains, frames, and now ornaments prove that his parents stuck him with an odd name. So Grandma bought him the closest she could find and we were going to try to change it, but Wils decided he likes it the way it is....he's kind of odd that way himself. This year 'William' the Snowman adorns the top of the tree.

Maybe we should remove the hook?


Another year I was inspired by my brothers girlfriend who had made all these funky, silly, glittery ornaments out of dime-store toys. My favorites were the Rock-and-Roll 50's dolls ....

.... but just as intriguing was the glitter coated T-Rex....what's not to love here?


So, the kids and I took out our glue and glitter and plastic zoo animals and made ornaments as gifts. I thought they turned out great....not sure how the recipients of blue-sparkly rhinos felt....but at least we were fairly original.





This one was hand-made by Annie....last year. I'm so glad she has friends whose moms are wonderful about doing the crafty things I don't seem to do anymore....sigh.


And the tree wouldn't be complete without the stuffed gorilla ornament.



Ta Da!!!

2 comments:

Jeano said...

Beautiful!! We have stories behind so many of our ornaments. I'm such a sentimental person, love this time of year.

Julie said...

Beautiful tree! The T-rex ornament is awesome! We didn't put ours up until last night and then didn't decorate until today. I'm still hesitant to put up my "good" ornaments because of Keith's hands-on approach to living. We do have some ornaments up that were given to the children on various occasions as well as ones they've made in school. I had decided we weren't going to put up a tree this year but now that we have, I'm really enjoying it. Merry Christmas! :)