My HOliDaY TRaDiTions... :)

I thought this would be a fun time to post what some of your family traditions are around your house during the Holiday Season. I will start off by telling you some fun things about me. Since I don't post a lot of personal stuff...here you will get to know just a little bit more about me.. and I hope you enjoy reading my tale :)

I

have to tell you ... I LIVE FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!! if its anything to do with Christmas Count Me In!!!!

Confessions of a Christmas Tree Addict :)

It usually all starts a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving at my house. You say what in the world? Well I have to make at least three dozen trips upstairs and down stairs with all the packed up boxes and artificial trees.

Then I have to move furniture around to accommodate all my wonderful trees. You say trees... Did she say that right???? yes she did.... its trees... as of the last count I had 16 of those babies. Most of them are those skinny tall Pines. The ones like you get from Hobby Lobby. Sorry the name of them escape me right now... I am getting old you know :)

Any way I love all the trees they each have a theme...

The first tree I will talk about wears, my Christmas ornaments I had this tree when my Child was a wee tot. She was only 2 when I had my first set of ornaments. They were the soft foam type with strings around them, then there was wood ones, there were cloth ones too. All of these where Child safe. I wanted the Holiday to be fun.. not trips to the ER because of cut fingers or things choked on. As she grew in age we did replace the silly little kiddy ones with better ones... these where ones that we made by hand. I know you single moms know what I am talking about here. (Not much money to spare)I remembering having so much fun doing this... one night my oldest and dearest friend and I sat at the Kitchen table and we blew eggs... we washed out the inside and let them dry out. We blew out six eggs.. that gave three each to decorate any way we wanted too... We chose to use paint and lace. We made 6 little egg ornaments... I have to tell you of all the crystal and glass and handmade ornaments... those 6 little eggs are just about as precious as my child and grandchildren are to me. They have endured all my moving and all the trees I put up since they were made 34 years ago. They are always cradled down in their home....(an egg carton) every year and placed lovingly back in the storage box. No one touches those little guys... my family knows without the spoken words.... They just know it would just kill me if something happened to them. These six little ornaments hold all of those Special Christmas times that I have shared with family and friends. Even when the Grandchildren where young those little guys were on the trees.. yes Virgina they were there Just safely nestled at the top.

Tree number 2.... Then came the era of me making all of my holiday ornaments. I used ceramic fired little white things and made them into beautiful little caulk cover ornaments. Some of them even got acrylic paints, and all of them got a fun spray coat of lacquer to keep them nice. But through the years these little guys are starting to yellow.. But they still hold a spot in my heart, and go up on their own little tree.

I have to tell you my family use to have these huge Holiday get togethers from Thanksgiving through Christmas night. We always tried to find as much time as we could to go to grandmothers. Those times Changed the year after I started putting up my 2nd tree. Grandmother moved to CA. So I took over the traditions of Christmas being the oldest sibling. Now I was not like Granny we had one Christmas Party the Weekend Before Christmas.. but it was always wonderful and fun. I held this tradition until 5 years ago. Someone came as a guest with a friend and some of my things were stolen. I always said if I had trouble I would not hold the parties any longer. Its too bad too.. because there was so much fun and wonderful memories shared at these parties. I would have as many as 100 people running in and out of my house from 6pm to 6am. You have to remember I am a shift worker so the hour did not matter to me.... So it meant friends and family getting off work or being up at their hours they lived by.... anyway those were some very fun times. Lots of good food, friends, and memories... One Christmas party that will always stand out in my head....... I thought I was going have to cancel my party the weather outside was bad.. it had rained freezing ice all day... But I got everything ready for the party and people started come...This year started out like every other year...but it would soon change.... This years party had some real excitement... it was the year the fleeing armed robbers ran their car into my house... you might think this is strange. I lived right on a curve of a road at the time before I purchased the OLEO Ranch... Anyway I was having my party. When all of a sudden Boom!!!! The house shook like it was in and earth quake... Earth Quake in Ks?????... well maybe ... we do have small ones here. But we never feel those little earth quakes.. but the boom on the house we all felt it. Anyway back to the robbers..We raced to the door to see what was the clatter... there they were trying to scramble out the windows of that car that was sitting on what use to be my front porch. We heard and saw the Police Cars right behind them.. Teee hee heee heee... I am now laughing... all of a sudden my guy friends behind me, sort of bull dozed over me and lept into action.. Guns were drawn and handcuffs came out of no where.. these guys were taken into custody in a flat minute. There we were all standing out in front of my house on the ice covered lawn with the bad guys in handcuffs....waiting on the police to arrive.... I guess the robbers chose the wrong house to run into... my house was full of Police officers that night.

Tree number 3: Since I held these Christmas Parties one of the requirements to attend was to bring a handcrafted ornament. As we always trimmed the tree that night. I have received some wonderful ornaments through the years past. I can almost tell you what year I got them in. Even though some of them arrived so many long years ago. My best friend would bring me one special ornament every year.. it was a dated one.. I have all of these wonderful Hallmark Snoopy Ornaments. They were so cute they came in a little dog house shaped box. (I still have all the little boxes). The year I stopped the parties is the year she no longer gave me a special ornament..... I don't know if it was the special of the event is why I always got one or she just moved on like me.

Tree number 4...... This fun and magical tree has all of my frog ornaments on it. I have been collecting frogs for years.. and on this tree are all the cute little fat ones, skinny one, long legged ones, and bulgy eyed ones that I own.

Tree number 5 .....This tree has all the Crystal ornaments on it. For this tree to make it stand out and make those little ornaments PoP.. I have used white silk ribbons to make hangers for them. The white of silk ribbon make your eyes draw toward the glass ornament. It just gives the tree that little extra where it is needed.

Tree number 6..... This is another tree that is very dear to my heart. Some of you, that know more about me from emails and other chats, know I work for our local police department... Well this very Special tree has all of my Police ornaments on it that I have been collecting since I started on the department almost 24 years ago. It is decorated in blue lights for the officers that serve to protect us. The blue lights are to honor the offices that have lost their lives in the line of duty and to also remind the ones that are out there to be safe, and we are thinking of you. This idea came from National Cops office. It is call Project Blue light... I even have a Blue lighted candle in my window that is burning all year round. So if you want to honor your law enforcement officers just decorate with Blue.. they will most likely know what it means. :)

Tree number 7 ... This tree has all the handmade ornaments from my family members.. it always brings a smile to my heart when I decorate this little tree.. It has all of those little handmade paper ornaments. Gingerbread men with glitter, snowmen with cotton balls on the body, Santa's with construction beards. I marked each one with a date on the back and had each one of them laminated to keep them for always. Then there are the wonderful hand painted wood ones that my sister gives me each year. She always paints us each an ornament.. includes the date on the back too :) They are fantastic always. :)

Tree number 8.... this little tree has all of my snowmen ornaments on it. I have some of those little so mores type, Snowmen on sleds, this tree even has some handmade snowmen I have received through the years. This tree is a tree that I leave up through out the winter months.. as it get very bare around here when all trees are packed up and put away. I enjoy looking at those little guys when there is snow outside on the ground. Its just stinking fun to have them up too.

Tree number 9... I have a tree outside on my front porch that is nestled down between all of my vintage snow sleds.. this tree doesn't have many ornaments on it.. the ones that are on it are plastic... I have awoke many mornings to see it blown over by the Kansas winds.. this little tree does sport a ton of lights though... when lit at night you would not know it did not have a lot of ornaments. It just looks cute ;)

Tree number 10.... this little tree has all the angels on it.. I have wonderful crystal ones, handmade one, big ones, small ones, round ones, wood ones, cloth ones... A person....has to have an angel tree its just the right thing.. Because Christmas is when I think of Angels the most :) They are there to remind me of our Lord and all of his sacrifices he made to make me who I am today.

Tree number 11 .... This is a tree that is very eclectic.. it has all those fun little ornaments on it... The cats, dogs, candy canes, Santa's, reindeer, stars, moons, string pulls, you name it... and its on this tree. :)

Tree number 12 ... is the tree with the extra ornaments like on tree number 11. But with other additional ornaments.. it is loaded with the Grinch. I just love the Grinch.. I have several stuffed Grinch's that sit underneath this tree.. and I also have several hanging ornaments of him on this tree.

Tree number 13... is my Vintage Feather Christmas tree that lives in my bedroom during the Christmas holiday. It has old vintage ornaments on it. I have only had this little tree for a couple of years. I would like to change the decorations on it and get some of those ATC's for it.. I think those vintage trading cards all glittered up would be a lot of fun.

Tree number 14 and 15 are both my miniature trees... One of them is on my TV and the other one is on the counter in the Kitchen. They are all dress up in the tiny little ornaments...They are so cute :)

Tree number 16.... is the Main tree in the house... it is either a real tree or my very nice Scotch Pine. This tree sports all of my Western Decorations. I love Country... it is covered in, wagon wheels, saddles, tee pees, cowboys, cowgirls, cows, horses, ropes, spurs, you name it if its western its on that tree :) This is a 9 foot tree... *artificial one is* I try to get one that tall if it is real too....I have even made a leather garland with beads and feathers for it.. it is very very nice. (My Ceilings are almost 12ft in my house)

Each one of the trees have clear white lights that make all the ornaments sparkle and shine. Each tree has a tree skirt, some handcrafted some purchased. I have toy trains, glass blocks that glow, handmade reindeer and other items to decorate the bottom of each tree.

Yes Virgina ... there is a Santa Clause.. its in us and how much we love the spirit of Christmas.

I want just two more trees in my house... One will be in the kitchen full of fun things.... like vintage measuring cups, small rolling pins and so on. The last tree I want to put up will be in my sewing room... I want it to sport fun items like vintage toy sewing machines, old vintage sewing kits, old thread spools painted up with Christmas colors... and so on.. I really think that would be a very fun tree to decorate..

So now that I have bored all of you to tears with the story of all my Christmas trees.... tell me about some of your holiday trees, and traditions. You can even write a book like me... :)

Thanks for letting me share my wonderful Christmas tree stories with you.. I wish you all a safe and Happy Holiday :)