Come Decorate the Tree

We bought our Christmas tree this afternoon, and the Professor and I had a new experience, or at least new to us for many, many years: we decorated the tree all by ourselves! No kids! They were all busy. So we hung our ornaments, and they will hang theirs later. Our tree looks quite bare and Charlie Brownish as it stands right now.

Every year we enjoy our re-acquaintance with our special ornaments, and all the memories that come flooding back. We share a few with you.

The Professor's all-time favorite ornament reminds him of Greta's tape and staples stage of childhood. She loved making crafts, and the more tape, the better. This angel is based on a TP tube. She had also recently discovered the hole puncher, and she created the pink angel smile with many tiny paper circles.

Another handmade ornament (they are the best ones of all, aren't they?), a spool angel by Heather. She was perhaps 13 when she made this as a gift for her mom.

Mom made this Japanese girl for me when I was about 9 or 10 years old. It was made completely with scraps left from other projects. She found the pattern in a ladies' magazine, and she made one for each daughter. It wasn't intended for a Christmas ornament, but I decided to use it that way many years ago. So cute.

From my childhood, when we each began getting an ornament a year for our own future tree. This one was quite unusual at the time.

Another handmade ornament. The girls and I made a number of these from old glass balls, cleaned of their color, then marbleized on the inside with acrylic paints. Their vibrant colors really show up well on the tree.

This is what my girls looked like when they were very young. I was amazed to find a set of these cute girls dressed as Santa Lucia.

A vintage-look glass ornament very much like ones my family had when I was very young. I don't remember them as complete ornaments though; every one had a little child-size finger hole in the indentation. Too much of a temptation I suppose.

More decorating here.