What Does Your Tree Say About You?

I love Christmas.   I don’t think that statement would surprise anyone that knows me.  I also love decorating for Christmas.  There’s all kinds of Christmas Trees, in my opinion at least.  I do love those trees that are decorated and look like they belong in a Pottery Barn catalog.  I love trees that have color themes, such as lime green and bright red and everything on the tree are those colors.  I love the trees that have HUGE ornaments.  I love all kinds of trees.   But our tree is nothing like these.

Justin and I both decided long ago that we wanted a tree with personality.  Various ornaments, no color theme.  We wanted a tree that described us.  We have all kinds of ornaments on our tree.  We collect ornaments for every place we travel, and yet we are still missing a TON.  I need to get a Cheers Bar ornament from Boston, MA where we went with Justin’s sister and her husband.  We need one for Rome, Italy because we never could find one when we were there.  There’s still so many we need.  But here’s what we do have:

This giraffe was purchased at a lodge we stayed at while doing a safari in the Serengeti in Africa.

This is one of our family photos and I got the frame from my sister who gave it to a lot of her clients with an order last Christmas.

This one needs no explanation.  2012 is his first Christmas.

I’m glad this one didn’t have a year on it like most “Baby’s First Christmas” ornaments do.  Because it would have said 2011.  I was that confident that Carter would have been here by Christmas day last year.  But the big guy upstairs had different plans.

This was our first ornament as a married couple.  It has our names and the date of our wedding on them.

These were purchased with the wedding ornament above.  Justin and I LOVED scuba diving the first year or so of our marriage.  He still loves it and does it when he can.  I, however, doubt that I will do it again after a scare in Cozumel, Mexico that could have taken my life.

From our trip to London, England in 2011.

This one may be the most special.  It’s of St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, LA and I purchased it after Justin proposed to me in front of the Cathedral on January 17, 2009.

This is from Moscow, Russia.  We didn’t travel to get this one.  It was a gift from my in-laws who go to Russia every year to visit our sponsored children at an orphanage in Kirov, Russia.

Mount Rainer National Park which Justin has been to twice (myself only once).  We went together to visit my friends the Kelly’s in the summer of 2010.

Freeport, Maine.  One of my FAVORITE trips.  We went to Acadia National Park which is in Bar Harbor, Maine so we traveled to the legendary LL Bean store in Freeport.  GORGEOUS city!!! 

This is another place we hadn’t been to, but this was a gift from my in-laws.  It represents the “Passion” play that is done in Germany once every 10 years, I think.

And our tree wouldn’t be complete without a Smoky National Park ornament.  I can’t even remember how many times we’ve been there now.  We have to be closing in on 10 quickly.  We just decided over Thanksgiving to make the Smokies Carter’s first trip.  Lots of people take their babies to the beach as a first trip and we’ll do that eventually, but the Smokies is just more us, as a family.

And that’s our tree :)