My Christmas Tree 2008

This year I decided to put all the pictures and cards I receive on my tree. I also placed a few gifts on it as well - the beautiful orange scarf my friend Harrison picked up in India, a slinky from a co-worker, and the yellow square from Harrison, and a cut-out of a snowman made by one of my primary kids.

It's kind of nice having all of these reminders right in front of me every time I walk by it. Perhaps I've started a new family tradition for myself.

Perhaps I should start writing my own Christmas cards. Yikes! December has been a lot more hectic than I expected at work and so the real priorities went by the wayside. Shame on me, but thanks for your greetings, cards, and family photos.

Merry Christmas!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I have a regular fake Christmas tree in my living room. However, twas not always so.

When I was little we lived in Thailand for a couple of years. It was a little hard, or perhaps impossible, to find Christmas trees. My parents created this paper tree and taped it to the wall. It doesn't look like a bad idea and perhaps I should use that method in my small condo.

The next year they got more creative and purchased rattan hoops and thousands of baggies. They tied the baggies close together on each of the hoops and then connected them with fish wire. It was a beautiful tree that we used most of my growing up years. Or, at least we thought it was beautiful. As it aged, we spray painted it green to cover up the fading color.

Once in a while we put up a traditional tree, but there were times where we would have one real tree displayed in one window and the old Thailand tree in another window. It caught a few people off guard because it does appear to float.

Though I've stuck with the worldly tradition of trees, part of me is tempted to create another version of the rattan and baggy tree. That is the tree that holds the most memories. Sometimes if we twirled it too much it would collapse down inside itself on the floor. That was usually fine...until we put on the bulbs. After that each collapse was usually followed with a few tree decoration casualties and a stern lecture.

Ah, good tree times.