O, Christmas Tree

I love Christmas trees.  My favorite ones are not the well-thought-out beauties with a theme or color scheme. Those are gorgeous, but I really like when a tree is simply representative of the family.  Ours is full of ornaments that signify events or hobbies we had once upon a time.  They tell a history of sorts.  There's the typewriter ornament from the year I learned to type, the knitting basket ornament from the year I learned to crochet, and so on.  Handsome Hero has lots of skates from when he played hockey.  I have more musical ornanaments than I know what to do with.

We put the tree up on Sunday evening. Then it fell over on Monday, so I put it up then, too.  Grrrrrrr.

Jack was really excited to put on the lights!

CHEESE!

And here is our beautiful, twice decorated tree.  I don't know if I'll put a topper on it.  I kind of like it without one.

A few of our ornaments for your viewing pleasure: 

 

Handsome Hero and his sister.  What cuties!

We found these for Jack's first Christmas.  A lion for Jack, an owl for Ella.

This Cinderella story book is as old as me. 

One of my favorites from my grandfather's tree.  It's very special to us to have heirloom ornaments.

My sister made this one for us for Ella's first Christmas.  Again, very special.

And this has to be my favorite Christmas ornament. My parents gave me this angel when I was in high school.  It used to be holding a trumpet, which broke off at some point. When it had the trumpet, it looked for all the world like an anteater angel. When I opened it, I mocked this ornament mercilessly. My mom had picked it because she thought it was beautiful, and I couldn't. stop. laughing. at it. 

You know what she did? She started laughing, too.  Instead of getting upset that I hadn't appreciated her choice, she made an awesome memory for me. Every year I look at this ornament and remember that moment.  And then I pray that I will be able to make great memories for my kids by being able to laugh at myself instead of taking offense.