I've been busy in the kitchen today preparing breakfast dishes for one of my favorite holiday traditions, Christmas Eve brunch. I'll have all my family in the morning to enjoy breakfast casserole, potato casserole, fruit salad, and some pastries. Everything is prepared and the kitchen is clean for now so I thought it was a good time to update and extend Christmas wishes of good cheer from our home to yours.
Our Christmas is old fashion and full of tradition, very family centered. We don't have a lot of holiday parties or events to attend. I decorate the house early at the end of Thanksgiving week so that we can enjoy the tree and decorations as long as we can. Evenings in front of the lighted tree and glowing fireplace is mine and Collin's idea of "it doesn't get any better than this." We like to keep it simple.
Since I mentioned the Christmas trees and I believe that to be the focal point in all decorating, I thought I'd share ours with you today and a bit of tradition around all the trees in our house--four to be exact.
This is the focal tree in our living area that we enjoy the most in late evening or early morning as we enjoy our coffee. It hosts a variety of ornaments that are all unique having been given to us by friends, families, or bought personally. Many are souvenirs of trips and some made by our kiddos when they were in school. It has traditional colored lights and holds all the gifts for our family until Christmas Day.
This is Bryan's John Deere tree. It is the second tree of tradition in our home. It actually rests in Bryan's bathroom on the vanity. It was his first tree when he was a toddler wanting to have a tree in his room because his big sister had her own tree in her bedroom. When I first purchased this little 24 incher, it had tiny little ornaments on it and I added a string of colored lights. Let me be clear that at the time, Bryan didn't like white lights. They were "scary" and "ghosty". Only colored lights would do. Being little and playing with the tree, the original ornaments bit the dust. The tree stayed stored for a while until he began collecting John Deere ornaments and his mom had this brilliant idea. Every year, we decorate this little tree with green and yellow, and now, we add a string of white lights. It's tradition how it looks and where it is to sit. No changes.
The third tree of tradition. As Bryan got a little older, he also began to notice that Micah's tree was bigger and we graduated to a tree of larger size, about 4 foot. It stayed in his room with colored lights, no less until his middle teen years when it didn't seem quite as important as it had once upon a time. In the meantime, Bryan began playing the drums and we began collecting new ornaments accordingly. Once again, mom had a great idea of pulling this tree out of storage and putting all the drum ornaments on it making it a specialty tree. We put it to the side of the French doors in the dining area, with colored lights I might add, and it was a hit. It goes in that same spot every year. No changes.
Last year, we added the fourth little tree. Now in his late twenties, he has become an avid duck hunter. You guessed it; we now collect duck hunting ornaments. Last year, I went and bought this little tree, pre-lit, and we we started another specialty tree. Our camo snowman is a new feature this year. The way this collection is growing, I may have to get a bigger tree next year. This one is setting on the hearth by the fire place. If we have to get a bigger tree, I'm not sure where it will set. Otherwise, B likes everything just the way it is. No changes.
Now, sadly, I so wish I had a picture of Micah's tree that stayed in her room during the tweens and teens. It was so cute--it looked a bit like and we called it, her Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It didn't get decorated quite as often when she started college and moved to the dorm. I think she may have taken it out to her room once or twice. At any rate, mom has stored the tree, and you can never tell, I might pull it out of storage again sometime and decorate it. If I do, I'm sure it will become tradition to do so every year. Or, you never know, she may ask to take the tree to her home one day to start some new traditions with her family.
Well, that's our tour of the trees and just a tidbit of our shared family favorites that I hope you'll enjoy. We like cozy and warm. From our house to yours. . .
Merry Christmas,
Marcia
