Our Tree

Yesterday I read another blog and she blogged about her tree. Well, I decided our tree deserved a mention in my blog. Our tree is horrible. No, seriously! It really is, but that's ok!! It's this jumbled mix of homemade and kids ornaments, old ones and new ones. But they are so very dear to me!!  My favorites?

The trumpet ornament that was my dads when he was growing up.

There are also 2 on there from my Grandmother, and my paternal great grandmother. The one from my Great-Grandma is a knitted pair of ice skates. The "blades" are paper clips. The one my grandmother made hard to explain. It's almost like a stuffed quilt block, and she added some beads. Just seeing it makes me smile and its a reminder of her love I still get to feel every holiday season.

Danny's Baby's First Christmas

The  boys' First Christmas ornaments

J and T have each made various ones throughout their years in school. My favorite T has made is this really cute one made from a CD case. One side has a picture of him smiling really cute with a Santa hat one, and says NICE. You flip it over and he's frowning, looking real mad, and it says NAUGHTY!

My fav of J's is a Santa and a Snowman he made out of popsicle sticks. Isn't it amazing what all you can do with popsicle sticks? ;-)

Another favorite is one my boys look for each year. It's a wooden cut out of a bus from my bus driver from 1985. It must have taken her AGES because she made one for each kid on her bus and they are all hand painted with a neat little note on the back.

We used to have this pretty angel that sat on the top.  The second or third Christmas we had with Smokey, he got bored one night, somehow got the angel down, and ate off her wings.  My Aunt K made us a pretty bow to stick up on the top, and I like it so much I haven't replaced the angel yet.

I am like the Hallmark commercials. Every year I try to get my boys a new ornament, usually trying to represent something they did or accomplished that year.  My hope is someday they can take them with them when they start their own lives, but that thought also makes me very sad.

I dream of having a tree with matching ornaments, ribbon, and perfectly placed lights. But I'll have to get another tree and put up two, because this one makes me smile too much!!