Wednesday, December 15, 2010

New tree, old ornaments.

This blog was started before Christmas but things got in the way of me finishing and posting it, so here it is now.




I decided to buy a new tree this year. I haven't really put up a full size tree for several years. Last year I used a Charlie Brown tree. I thought I had a picture of it, but here is a link so you can see it if you want to have a look-see.
I love my Charlie Brown tree and plan to put it up in the bathroom this year.

Some years I use the nice little wall tree referenced here. It can also be a stand up tree if you open up the branches and attach its stand. Either way it's a pretty little tree and looks nice with my snowmen and candy ornaments.

This year I decided I wanted a new tree because I wanted a pre-lit version. I bought a nice little seven foot tree with all white lights. I really prefer multi-colored lights, but decided to try the white. I figure I can always add a couple of strands of color if I decide I want them. For this year, though, I just used it the way it is.

Logan decorated the bottom for me







I decorated the top and put the garland on. It turned out nice. There is only one thing I can't figure out. There is no way to effectively attach a tree topper if it weighs more than a couple of ounces. They need to make artificial trees with a piece that sticks up from the top that can hold the weight of a tree-topper. I used to have a nice angel tree-topper, but it started looking like it was going to burn up. I bought a nice star this year because the angels all looked like Barbie dolls dressed in costume.


I had to nestle it in the branches near the top and while that looks ok, I would have liked to have placed it on top of the tree. Maybe I will make a nice new angel one from a toilet paper roll. My very first tree topper was made from a toilet paper roll. I wrapped it in gold foil paper and put a nice little angel package decoration on it. I used it for years but if finally died. Here are some close-ups of some of the other ornaments that are still with me after many years.

I have a lot of ornaments that make decorating a big tree nostalgic for me. I bought these ornaments for my very first tree when I was 19 years old and moved into a little house of my own. ($85.00 a month rent! haha.) These ornaments have been with me all my adult life and go on the tree every year unless I use one of my smaller trees. A few of them have died over the years, but I still have most of them 41 years later.

















One that my sister's kids decorated and gave to me for Christmas presents one year. I love these, too!


Keri made this one in 1982.


And her daughter Rhyan made this one, but I don't have a year for it.


I always include a selection of the kids's school project ornaments on my tree each year.





I made this one in the seventies.


These I hand painted in the early seventies. These are the "bottom" ornaments that the kids put on the tree unless I have a child living here. In that case they get their own tree and these go on that. My kids had their own trees in their bedrooms so they could decorate and undecorate to their heart's content!

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