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.