Trimming the Tree

© shoutingforha

So, how was your Thanksgiving? We spent the day enjoying good friends, good conversation and entirely too much good food. I'm not sure if I have ever been so full.

I spent the majority of Friday decking our halls with four million Christmas houses and trimming the tree with my boys. I am thrilled that the task is done and I can now enjoy gazing at my handiwork until early 2010.

We here at the Ha house are real tree people... Frasier Fir lovers, to be specific. I will admit that owning a pre-lit, artificial tree would certainly save a tremendous amount of time and energy. I just can't live without that fresh-cut pine tree smell. There is nothing like it.

Every year, we select a new ornament... something that represents a significant event that happened during the year. After seventeen years of marriage, our tree is eclectic, to say the least.

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The boy got to pick out our ornament for 2009. He thought a yellow taxi would be the perfect way to commemorate our recent trip to New York City.

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This sailboat is the first ornament that the hubby and I ever purchased. It captures the way we felt as we "set sail" on our life together.

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We picked up this covered wagon in 1994. That was the year we spontaneously packed up and moved from Colorado to Nashville.

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I love this life vest that the hubby and I picked up one summer in Bar Harbor, Maine. I think I could be happy living in New England. 

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This is my all-time favorite ornament. The hubby and I bought the frame on one of our many December trips to Chicago. I was six months pregnant and couldn't wait to meet the little person growing inside me. The picture is a sonogram image of the boy's tiny foot.

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We also have a large number of ornaments that have been crafted by our boy. The first was this star that he painted shortly before his second Christmas. He was twenty-months-old.

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I am also partial to this hand-print reindeer that the boy brought home from preschool one year. I am amazed by how tiny his hand was. He is growing up so quickly...

While our tree may not meet the Martha Stewart seal of approval, I think it is just perfect. I could spend hours basking in the glow of the lights, looking at the memories hanging from each limb.