Christmas tree

I've already written that this is the first year that the kids have ever had a real tree. They were quite shocked at first, but I think they've gotten over it and don't notice it anymore. Although we've always put our tree up over Thanksgiving weekend, this year it wasn't done until two weeks later.

It usually doesn't look the same any two years. Sometimes there are white lights, sometimes colored. Sometimes we've used garland, sometimes not. Last year, we wound a gold mesh ribbon into the tree (loved that!). Robert usually puts tinsel on at the end, but not always.

But the ornaments are always the same. Most of them have a lot of meaning behind them--to me. Irreplaceable are the ones Holly and Trevor made when they were little.



For several years, my mom would buy three identical ornaments. She'd keep one, and then send one to me, and one to my sister. I like hanging these up, knowing that they both have matching ones too. They were always very unique.



Robert's mom buys Holly and Trevor at least one ornament each year, and we buy something to commemorate the year also. Robert and I have exchanged ornaments way back since our first Christmas together.

Trevor gave me this last year. It can hang on the tree or sit on the table.




We also have a few dozen ornaments from when Robert was a boy. They are a little scratched, most showing their age, so I hang them way inside the tree where they hang all soft and shiny. He also managed to get the star that topped his family's tree for as long as he can remember, back to at least the early '70s.



We have other tree traditions, including putting certain Christmas cards into the branches. They are usually cards from parents/grandparents, saved for opening on Christmas Day. We will occasionally watch home movies from when Robert was very young. His family always hung a sign on the tree each Christmas morning with the year written on it. (That way, no one can every argue which year it was!) We try to hang a sign but don't always remember.

There are a few other silly "traditions," although maybe "habits" is the better word, which I'll post later.