Oh Christmas Tree!

Even though we live in the great Pacific Northwest, our tree comes out of a box. We used to go out every year to a U-Cut lot somewhere up in the hills, have the traditional argument over which was the best tree, and bring it home on top of the car. We'd keep it in a bucket of water until about a week before Christmas before bringing it in and decorating it. Trees dry out fast in the warm, dry environment of the house. But then the kids developed allergies and the tree made them sneeze, and they weren't enjoying the tree trek so much, so finally we went artificial. We still have that same tree. Each branch has to be fluffed and attached separately. It takes a while. It's showing some wear, but when it's all together it still looks good. And we can have it up all month! Our ornaments are a trip down memory lane. They are collections we have been gathering for 40 years. Most recent is the collection of travel souvenirs. We try to buy an ornament for each major location we have visited. The felt ornaments mixed in are ones I made more that thirty years ago, when we didn't have much else to put on our tree. Of course the Santa collection extends to the tree and has its own section. There is a big section devoted to birds. And the kids' collections, of course. For years Jill collected horses and Jake collected pigs. This included a number of ornaments, which have their place on the tree.

And gardening and other hobbies, like sewing, are represented in their section.

Our tree is even a little buggy.

Last year we pulled out all of the Winnie The Pooh characters Tom's mother made for her grandchildren when they were small. They are real treasures. We'll have them out again for now, but since Santa is coming to our house this year, they'll have to move aside Christmas eve.

From the steady stream if packages being delivered to our door, I'm thinking we'll need all of the space for presents.