“O Christmas Tree”

Day 191

One thing that I absolutely love about Christmas is the tradition of the Christmas tree. I remember how much fun it was when I was a kid and I would go out with my family to get a Christmas tree. I loved the smell of the pine - an instant reminder of Christmas. And once we would get the tree, set it up in the house and decorate it the Christmas spirit just seemed to arrive in full force!

Over the years my family has had tree after tree, each one beautiful and distinctive. Sadly, I don’t have many pictures of the earlier trees, in particular the tall trees we had when we lived in Rigby, Idaho (they were amazing!); however, I have a collection of trees from the years since my family and I moved to Colorado Springs:

Christmas 1995: My mom wanted to have it decorated in an old-fashioned way,

with apples (fake, mind you), ribbons, flowers and candy canes. This was an artificial tree,

and while it didn’t have that fresh pine smell it was still a nice tree.

Christmas 1996: this time around we had a real tree (with that lovely pine scent)

and the theme of the tree was “red.”

Christmas 1998: back to having an artificial tree, this time propped up on a box to

increase the height. The ribbons and candy canes are still used for decorations,

but there is more variety in the colors.

Christmas 2003: new decorations, including garland to wrap around the tree,

although we still have the ever-popular candy canes hanging on the tree.

Christmas 2004: homemade decorations were the theme to this year’s tree; beautiful,

crocheted ornaments (exquisitely made by Mom) adorn the tree.

Christmas 2005: in the new house, with a new, stylish look to the tree. Mom got the great idea

to use metallic ribbon in red and gold, which became the theme for the tree.

Christmas 2009: another year with the red and gold look, along with

some new decorations to compliment the theme.

Christmas 2010: this year’s tree theme is silver and blue, and in my opinion is the

perfect balance of style and simplicity! But we have a 2nd tree

(courtesy of Jordan and Erin - they gave it as a gift a few years ago):

My dad always loved the flocked white trees because when he was growing up the very

prominent, wealthy members of the community owned such a tree.

So Jordan and Erin surprised Dad with this cute little tree. We use the homemade

decorations on this tree now, and it is a great addition to the house.