Oh Christmas Tree!

After reading another blog, I was inspired to write this post.  Every Christmas one of my favorite things to do is decorate the tree.  Actually, I should probably rephrase that and say one of my favorite things is putting the ornaments on the tree.  Christmas lights have become our nemesis and each year we put up the tree I swear our next one will be prelit.  Poor Cort had to restring the lights like 3 times this year.  I digress.....

Putting the ornaments on the tree has always been a fun tradition since the days when I decorated the tree with my family.  You would oohhh and ahhh over certain ornaments, and tell stories of where they came from and what they reminded you of.  It is fun to now be able to do that with my own family's tree.  While putting up the tree this year was not the world's most relaxing experience (meaning that I believe both Cole and Zip were on a mission to destroy at least a couple of ornaments-thankfully they didn't!), I love to just look at the tree at night when it is all lit up and check out all the ornaments (as do the kids).  They represent so many different periods of my life, Cort's life, and now our kids' lives.

Here are a couple of pictures I took tonight.

The tree

Same pic, but see the streak around the tree??  That's our Polar Express train going around, so cool!!

One of Cort's childhood ornaments given to him by his grandma

One of my childhood ornaments, given to me by my best friend growing up, Cheryl (who I am still in touch with).  It has my name and the year engraved on it-1986!!!!!

One of the many ornaments Cort and I received at Christmas the year we got married (from Pam's mom I believe)

One of Mia's ornaments on the tree (from Rebecca).  She also has her own tree in her room now that has a lot of her ornaments on it (1st Christmas, etc.)  When I was growing up I got to have my own tree too, so it is fun to pass that tradition onto her and she LOVES her tree.  :)

One of Cole's ornaments-from Pam I think (he will get his own tree too, probably next year)

Even Zip has ornaments-this is from before we had children obviously, when you take your pet to see Santa.  This did not go well.  This was a favorite story of my dad's to tell, seeing that Zip bit Santa through his gloves. 

We have so many other ornaments too, given through exchanges with my high school friends and ISU friends.  This one was from Julie last year.

I love too that the majority of my and Cort's childhood ornaments are on the tree in Mia's room and she loves to check them all out.  Once Cole is a little older, we will divide them and they will be passed along to them.  It is crazy to think they may one day be decorating a tree with their family with some of the same ornaments that are on our tree today.  Merry early Christmas-1 more week to go!!