decorating my Christmas tree 12-10-14

I have a phony tree. I got to be too much, too heavy. just beyond me, so I bought a 6 foot plastic one. It does not look too bad. It has multi colored lights.

As I get out my Christmas decorations it is like a family reunion. I have some from my early 1st marriage. We bought them at the PX in Anchorage, Alaska. I have a picture of me with our Charlie Brown tree, we cut it down our selves. I look like "The Wreck of The Hesperus". Death warmed over was a kind word. I was going through a rotten pregnancy. There are some from the time spent in Glasgow, Montana at an Air Force Base. I have some my Mother brought down when she came to live with me. Those I remember from my childhood and from visits to her home through the years. I have collected ornaments everywhere I have lived and people have sent them to me as they have traveled. My 2nd husband brought wooden ornaments, airplanes, sailboats and trains. He also had a paste board village, with cellophane windows and bottle brush trees. That is a lot of fun to put out. My kids bought skiers and snowman builders to put in it.

As I put each decoration out I remember who and where it came from. I have a bell from Grandma Peggy. A pink blown glass pig Terry and Gwen brought me from a trip back East. Santa in a Hot Air Balloon from Kalin. Father Christmas in a dark blue robe and a gorgeous wreath Kalena bought in Montrose. There are Green Bay Santa's, lots of Denver Broncos and Green Bay ornaments and stuff.

My Mother bought Christmas decorations out of the windows where she worked. I have them. I saved some off the Governor's tree. Nice small angles made out of gold and white beads, one of the guys we 4 wheeled with, his girl friend made them one year. Another year, another guy, another girl, another bar she made stained glass ornaments to sell and I bought some, they are on my tree.  Salt Lake City Winter Olympic balls, Walt Disney Mice, from when I was handling motion picture accounts for an advertising agency. Laurel Burch gold metal cut outs in her designs, ones from museums and state capitols.

My daughter Kalena and I went to a Christmas Boutique for years in Montrose at Thanksgiving. Everything is handmade, you can meet the artists. We always found things for our homes and for gifts. I have many things from there. It made Christmas shopping easy. I just hung a pig bell from one of their artists and glued a hymnal on to an angel made out of macaroni that is fine, looks like china. I also have some fun wooden hand painted snow men hanging on my tree and rain deer sitting on my mantel my daughter in law made one year and some poodle dogs sitting inside the tree she made too. I also have some awful ornaments the kids made one year at my Mother's, to keep them busy, with cotton string to hang them. One is a juice can lid punched with a nail ! There are wooden miniatures that are fun, some are Mother's and some are Gary's. Little brown angles and Orientals sitting in wreaths. And that is just the 1st box !

I bought 3 of those boxes you snap together. mine are three tiers high and fit over the door in the front bedroom. they hold all my ornaments. That way the village and all the stuff from all over the house can go in their boxes on the big shelf. The next two boxes will have some of the same as the first. I'll only tell you if I come across something real good.