Tree

When the boys were young, we used a Countdown to Christmas calendar. It had a pocket for each day that held a strip of paper with an activity that would help us get ready for Christmas. Even though I haven't used that calendar for many years, I still like the concept of spreading out the holiday activities, and try to do one or two things every day to make the season less hectic.

Presenting our 2010 Christmas tree:

The ornaments aren't fancy or designer, but each one has a meaning.  They're a mix of old:

(All of these date back to our first Christmas together 30 years ago.  The "Noel" is simply a card front that I glued to a piece of felt, because we didn't have very many things to hang on the tree, and I marvel every year that it's survived.  Mrs. Santa is made from hexagon-shaped plastic beads and a wooden head, and was a gift from my mom.  I made the blue globe for Tony with rub-on letters.)

And new:

(Tony brought the shell back from his work training trip to California last fall.  I bought the gourd-shaped ornament while we were visiting Son Tony in Phoenix a couple of months ago, and the snowman was a gift from one of my students last year.)










There are still some ornaments to go on the tree. I save the boys' ornaments so they can hang them on the tree themselves.