Fancy Schmancy - It's just not me

As a young girl in my home, we had just one Christmas tree, we would go to the ranch, generally go out on horseback, pick out a tree, dad would chop it down and pack it up, put it in his truck and we'd head to town. We put the big lights, that were hot to the touch, on it, all kinds of ornamnents, some that mom and dad had since they were first married, others that we'd made together, and various ornaments that were gifts, and occasionally a few new ornaments to replace the ones that had been broken over previous years, and of course we strung the thin tinsel icicles on the tree. We decorated the tree as a family, the house was filled with the smell of pine and we were so excited about the Christmas season. Over the years, probably because of safety reasons, artificial trees, became more and more popular as well as more realistic looking unlike the first metal and tinsel ones. After a while it seemed like trees were going up earlier and earlier and that the popular thing to do was to have a color coordinated theme tree, with lots of ribbons and extravagant looking ornaments, they are very beautiful and to those of you who enjoy doing that I take my hat off to you, but that kind of Christmas tree is just not me. I like just having a simple Christmas tree, filled with ornaments from Christmases past, many of them hand made, that spark memories of that magical time of year. I love that my tree is not picture perfect, I like being reminded of the sweet memories of Christmas through the years. My life is not a perfect color coordinated tree with perfectly placed ornaments and trim, but a mixture of experiences that make life challenging at times. It's the composite of all those things that make life wonderful, and my ornaments collected and created through the years are what makes my tree beautiful. I've posted a few pictures of the ornaments on my tree...

Laura and I created this red snowflake together

This snowflake is made from broken beads that were in my husband's grandmother's jewelry box. We made one for both of the children so they would have that tie to their great-grandmother.

This is a snowflake that was crocheted by Mike's Grandmother one afternoon when Mike's Aunt Jan and Grandma Millett had me over to learn how to crochet snowflakes, theirs were big and lovely like this one, mine were pretty, but very tiny as I was not used to working with such fine thread. I think of Grandma and Aunt Jan every time I place this ornament on the tree.

Mike loves family history and one of his ancestors Artemus Millett helped build the Kirtland Temple, so of course we need a Kirtland Temple ornament.

Laura and I spent an afternoon together crafting the candy canes, and candle wreath ornaments a few years ago, we put on a Christmas movie and beaded all of these, great memories.

Laura's creation

We like to buy ornaments of places we go to as a family, I love our Salt Lake Temple ornament, it brings back great memories of one of our family trips.

Another craft we did on Thanksgiving day to keep the kids busy.

I love this ornament, because it reminds me of my dad. Just about every year we had a race car track set up and running on Christmas Day. I remember racing with my sisters, brother and dad for hours.

This is Laura's special ornanment that gets a prominent place on the tree as it was given to her by her birthmother.

Laura's first Christmas ornament

Andrew's first Christmas ornament

One of Andrew's Mickey's Christmas Carol ornaments, there's a whole set, he loved that movie and was so excited when he got the ornaments.

We went to the Nutcracker a couple of years back with my parents, my dad had never been, Laura chose Clara for her keepsake and of course Andrew wanted the large Nutcracker, so that cannot go on the tree.

This is our Christmas tree, it is not at all FANCY SCHMANCY, but I love it and I think it's beautiful, filled with all my wonderful Christmas memories.