Wednesday, December 3, 2008

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree....These ornaments mean so much to me!

When I was growing up, my parents and I always decorated our Christmas tree on the 2nd Saturday in December, after going to a pick-it-yourself-and-cut-it-down tree lot. We found it hard to believe that people would decorate any earlier for Christmas.

Fast-forward to 1997...the year I met my husband. His family always decorated the Saturday after Thanksgiving. He couldn't believe that people would wait and decorate so late.

Fast-forward to 2008...I now decorate my tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I still find it hard to believe that some people were decorated for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving. If you are one of those people, I still like you, but I can't decorate that early.

Anyways, I said all that to say this...my tree is up and decorated. It is a 7 and a half foot, pre-lit tree, with 3 strands of extra white lights. Love me some all white lights. I wanted to share with all of you my tree and some ornaments that mean a lot to me. Quinn is too little to make me any hand-made ornaments this year, but I'm sure next year I'll be posting about that. :-) Right Beth?

Ok. Here is my tree. The tree skirt was made by my husband's great-grandmother.


The first ornament I want to share is this one. We had it made while on our honeymoon in 2003. We went to the Poconos and there was a shop there that was all Christmas stuff. I love snowmen, so this was just perfect.

Ok, this next one is for fun. My in-laws have this ornament too, and got one for us after we got married. It is the Christmas Pickle. It is a German tradition. You hide the Christmas Pickle on the tree. The first child to find the pickle gets a small prize.

This next picture shows 3 ornaments at once. The one with the mouse was given to me by my parents the Christmas after I declared my major in college to be Elementary Education. The ornament on the left, the clear one, is actually an icicle. We got these at the Poconos Christmas shop too. There are about 20 of them scattered all over the tree. They catch the light and look so pretty. The gold one on the right is part of a set of 4 that we got for our first Christmas when we didn't have any ornaments of our own.


The next one I bought a few years ago. I love the Celtic look of this cross. Buddy and I both have Irish background in our families and we thought this one represented not only our earthly heritage, but also our Heavenly Reward...the true meaning of CHRISTmas.


The final ornament I want to share is this one. It is a firefighter snowman, only the snowman is made out of ice blocks, and not snowballs. Can you see the fire hose he is holding? The bottom of it is a bell. We got this one after we joined the fire department to represent a new time in our life. He is one of several fire related ornaments.

So this is our tree for 2008. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I wish I could show all the ornaments, but that would take all day. Each one is special in its own way. I can't wait to start collecting ornaments for Quinn so when he is my age, he can look back and remember all the fun times.

Do you have favorite ornaments? I would love to hear about them, or read a post on your blog. Merry Christmas!

7 comments:

Heather said...

I want a tree skirt like that! and I have never heard of the pickle...we may try that!

Anonymous said...

I loved this blog, Kim! See you soon!
-Rebecca

Diane Teague said...

I collected ornaments for Kim and Jenn each year as they were growing up. It was good to see the ones Kim put on her tree. I love to hear stories like this. It means other people are sentimental. Claire and I started making a gingerbread house every year. Two so far. Mostly I have done the work and this year Claire did have to sample the candy. It is so much fun. We made it last night while mom and dad took a much needed anniversary break. Kim had a hard time getting rid of last years but we did take plenty of pictures. I am keeping a Christmas book with just pictures of the houses and Claire and me building it. Christmas is so much more fun as seen through the eyes of a child.

Chris said...

I love the Christmas pickle! I need to start that tradition with our family! No German heritage to speak of, but that's okay, right? :)

Your tree is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Kim said...

Love this post! Thanks for sharing. I had just said to my sister as I was decorating my tree on Wednesday that I should post some of my ornament stories. I think I will follow your lead soon.

Andrea said...

I too am going to go with an ornament post, I just haven't had the time! I love my ornaments and they all have a special meaning to me. My favorite one has to be the tiny little hand of Tanner's when he was a little over a week old. The nursery workers at church, mom, Patty and Linda actually bought it for him for Christmas. It's one of those that you mix the little mixture to make a mold and then put your hand in it. I love this ornament and I only wish I could've found one to do for Alex. She'll be mad at me when she gets a little older, ha!

Mrs. U said...

Hi there!
I just came upon your blog and I HAD to comment on this post. I just LOVE your ornaments! They all made me smile- especially the firefighter! Too cute!

His,
Mrs. U