Christmas Tree Season

You can count on me to love any Christmas tree.  I have had all sorts of fake ones - hand made ones too, even a white one that my Mom declared looked like a toilet bowl brush.  And real ones - some years we have had really interesting real trees.  Once my Dad brought home a one sided real one - Mom said "no way".  So Dad went back out into the woods and found the twin and we tied the 2 together - the tree was pretty rounded at the bottom and then the top branched out - we had a 2 top tree that year!  And just the other day one of my sister's and I were remember Nana & Grandpa's old silver tree that had a colored disc that went around and around and turned the tree red, blue, gold and green.  Funny!
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Above - one of my sister's real trees (I have lots of sisters so don't even try to keep them all straight!).  I have clearer photos, but I sort-ov liked the blurry light effect.  Even though that means you don't get to see all their great ornaments that her daughter did an excellent job of getting just so on that tree.  We got it this past weekend from a really fun tree lot.  They had lots of trees staked to the ground so you could see how they looked.  Nice trees!

They had nice wreaths.

But the very best part of all - they had a bon-fire set up with s'mores fixings (the good stuff - Hershey's chocolate!), hot apple cider and hot chocolate.  No extra charge!  This is their 1st year selling trees and I would say that everyone will come back again next year.  Who can say no to a new tradition involving s'mores and Christmas trees! 

Oh - and a very friendly black lab - but I forgot to take his photo.

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Here is a photo of the tree where I am right now - someone lent it to us and the decorations.  I think it looks pretty at night with the lights on.  My sister (a different one) is going to draw an angel and we are going to make a cone to tape it onto for the topper.  If you have an extra tree in the basement or garage - maybe someone in your community would like it.  I am happy that someone had an extra for us.

Last weekend we went to my nephew & his familys house.  We decorated that tree and had a nice family dinner.  Don't ask me what my crazy camera did for this photo, but here you go.

In Austria, my husband's sister uses real candles and glass ornaments.  The tree doesn't get set up until Christmas Eve and comes down before New Years.  It is a real tree but shaped differently than what I am used to with big spaces between the branches to allow for those candles.

I always like my own ornaments - when I am where they are at Christmas!  We have lots of apples, beads, crochet snowflakes, angels, musical instruments, birds, little wrapped presents and a great assortment of ornaments - even one that I painted when I was 3 years old... last time I had it all set up was 2 years ago (photo below).  I guess next year I should pack the ornaments and ship them over to Austria (they are in Canada and I am in the US so that plan won't work for this year).  Because my sweet little boy and husband are over there with no ornaments of their own this year - someone is lending them ornaments though and DH plans on getting a small tree this week.

And they do have an Advent wreath (here's a photo from last year) and my collection of rhinestone trees.

And a box of presents from Santa are enroute - winging their way across the ocean even as I type this.  At least if I don't make it over there Santa will.  After all - Santa rides for free in that magical sleigh of his.  Airline tickets are so expensive over the holidays this year that we are juggling plans and trying to make things work without blowing our budget.  But at the very least, you can always count on a tree making things look festive.