The "beach-y" tree

The "beach-y" tree
Originally uploaded by S'mee.

So #1 is up!

I love Christmas, everything about it! I love to decorate the house and bake cookies and buy presents and do all kinds of secret surprizes. It's the best time. I live for Christmas!

Years ago we always went down to a certain little farm in a wooded area near by and walked through the hills and cut down our favorite tree. Sometimes the tree would come with complete with a bird's nest, little critters, and some definate holes and bare spots. The farm where we went was a natural farm and they felt it best to just let nature design the trees. We had such fun back then! And ooh the scent of the tree in the house was heaven!

After a while the kids became quite talented at designing decorations and coming up with themes...this is when our 'trouble' began.

You see when you have five kids who take instruction well, and then develope their own style and ideas, they each want to be the head tree designer. Every one wanted their own tree.

We started out with little trees, each kid got a small tree to do with what they would. One thing led to another and eventually everyone had a big tree. Folks would give us their old trees, you know, the old fake tree with the silk pine needless that were falling off as fast as a 6 week old real tree? Well we took them anyway.

So now all the kids are gone and I still pull out all the trees and decorate them in themes. So far I have up 12, a 10', 3- 6', 4- 4' and a bunch of little ones. There are still plenty out in the shed waiting for Thor or myself to bring them in.

This is the beach-y tree. Lots of shells, and bubbles and a few Hawaiin dancers. The girls always put a tree that was elegant, with all hand made beaded ornaments and all the 'fancy' ornaments we collected over the years. The boys always like to go with colour or toys or lots of hand placed garland and/or tinsel. The thing is, after a while they were really good at it.

When they were little I taught them to stand back and look for holes in the tree, to see the colour balance and fill in the tree with the main ornaments first and follow through with the fillers. When they were little I wouldn't go back and correct their decorating, it was what it was, and as they grew their work got pretty good.

Many people will come by and check out the trees. Some I think like them. Some comment on how they look too much like department store trees or too commercial, others wonder why all the fuss? For us it's simple: we like to decorate. We like to celebrate. We like making the house extra special for those who drop by and for those who live here. It's a special time of year and things should be as special as possible.

We have one tree that is really cool. The tree that houses all the ornaments that friends and relatives have hand made. We call it the 'country tree' and it's filled to the brim with all kinds of trinkets, toys and memories most of all.

There's the tree that is filled with nothing but hearts! And the one that holds the ornaments for folks who pop in during the holidays. Anyone who comes over from now till Christamas will get an ornament to take home. This year we have tiny little clear balls filled with sand and shells with a tiny bow. There is a note attached that reads: "When you see this ornament on the tree, remember the One who walked on Galilee."

There is a snowman tree, a retro tree, a 'Grinch who stole Christmas' tree, a tree with cheesy beach toys and fish, another with tiny nativities, one "martha" tree, and a few more.

We love Christmas!