Sunday, December 4, 2011

Christmas Excitement Builds

The newfound appreciation of our
grandchildren for Christmas has
given us incentive to decorate a little
early this year and to feature lots of
child-friendly ornaments and playthings.

The tree itself is an interesting story.  Two
years ago, I decorated this little cedar that
volunteered between our fence and driveway.
I actually decorated it about four years in a
row.  But it was beginning to be a hazard
for cars driving into our yard. 

So I suggested to Judy a few months
ago that we might as well use it for
our Christmas tree since it would need
to be cut soon anyway.

VOILA!  Our one-time "Charlie Brown"
tree is a perfect fit for our cozy little
house in 2011.

Stealing from Amanda's blog idea, I
would like to highlight some of my
favorite ornaments.  This brightly-
colored bi-plane should have special
appeal for the girls, who love airplanes.

If one is good, two is better.  I love pewter
ornaments, and this is the P-47 Thunderbolt
for which my father was a flight chief in WW II.

This "Little Town of Bethlehem" ornament
plugs into our regular strings of lights.
I'll show the children how the lights coalesce.
Maybe I won't use that word, though.

Not much is typical about our tree, and
that goes for the angel, too.  Her lovely
gown is just right to cover one of our
tree's bare spots.

Years ago a student gave me a set of
four ornaments with snow-covered pine
cones and woodland creatures.  Here
are the cardinals.

This choo-choo train is really pretty
generic, and I'm not even sure we've put
it on the tree before.  But I thought all
the kids would enjoy it.

There are lots of others I could show you,
(but then you might want me to look at all
your ornaments) so I'll close with a very
precious one given to me and Judy by
Brianna!*  Just think, in 20 years or so, we
may have enough ornaments from the
grandchildren to trim the whole tree!
And I'd give a big HO HO HO to that!

*P.S. There's a little optical illusion at work
with Brianna's tree ornament.  Does it appear
to be see-through green plastic?  It's actually
solid green foil, but the patterns in it mimic
the cedar branches perfectly.  You can make
yourself see it either way if you concentrate.

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