Sunday, December 21, 2008

11 trees and a partridge!

Well here it goes, all 11 trees up and about two weeks later, our house is definitiely a winter wonderland. Our first tree up this year was Peyton's tree. He has been so excited about having Christmas this year that it was contagious. Maybe that is why we were stupid enough to actually do all 11. For those of you that don't know, Andy and I started this wild tradition after our first year of marriage. We felt that since my birthday was on Christmas and his was on Christmas Eve that we needed some grand Christmas tradition. This is what started. Each year we purchased a new tree. The rules are that you can never add to a tree once you have it, however, we have broken that with Peyton's tree and add all of the ornaments he makes or gathers within that year. It is getting to be a little out of hand and we have purchased small trees the last couple of years, but it is kind of neat once they are all up. All of them have names. I will list them below. Our goal is that after we have been married for a while (which we are getting to) , we will open it to the public for a Christmas tree lane and charge a dollar or two to come and see them. Then we will donate it to a charity of our choice.
This is Peyton's tree. It is pretty cute and fits him...very random and hodge podge. This was also purchased our seventh year for Peyton.(We actually lost a tree in all of our moves and hope to make it up...it was called twig tree and it was made entirely out of twigs. We had it out on our porch and used bird houses and birds and kept it outside). Peyton loves his little tree. He can decorate it anyway he wants and we add a few ornaments for him every year! He informs us that he wants to take the blue snowflake tree into his room next year, but that goes in our room!

This is "Twelve Days of Chrismtas Tree". It has carolers, music note ribbon, snowglobes-each with a different 12 days inside, and then four of each of the 12 days of Chrismtas ornaments. This is tree was purchased our seventh year. This tree below was I and Andy's first tree. It has all of our decorations on it. We purchase a fresh tree for this tree every year. It has all of our first ornaments on it and a lot of homemade ornaments that we like. We like to think of this one as our snoopy tree. That is what we usually like. However, this year was a really nice tree and doesn't look like the snoopy tree.

This tree is a smaller tree and we purchased it the year right before Peyton was born. This was in our sixth year of marriage. It is "Smores tree". It is actually a really cute tree and all of the ornaments and garland are smores stuff.


This tree was purchased last year(number 10) and is a smaller table top tree. It is actually referred to as "Symbol Tree". Each ornaments is supposed to symbolically represent something with regards to Christmas...however I do not have the guide and cannot remember what each item represents.


This is snowflake tree. This was the first tree we got after our real tree. This is actually Andy's favorite tree. It is blue with silver and white snowflake ornaments. It is a cute tree.

This next tree is actually called "Berta Hummel" tree. She is an artist who sculpts and paints little children. I collected the ornaments for about three years. This tree was tree number eight. It is our most expensive tree and matches our living room. Most trees we tree to keep within a lower budget, but after all of the collecting and the price of a flocked tree this one wins that award.

This next tree is angel tree. This tree was our fourth actually tree and it is a good thing we were able build a house because the "Rat Trap" (what we called our old house) didn't really have anymore room for trees. Our home right now, although very full of trees, still has room for some more. We will see how sick of it we get! Angel tree I think is one of our prettiest. The ribbon says Silent Night, Holy Night, and there are probably close to 100 different angel ornaments.

This is a our ninth tree and one of my most favorite. It is just whimsical and cute. It is called Candy Cane tree and is strictly red and white. I also purchased a cheap Walmart white tree and it is just really cute.

This next tree is my most favorite. Even the name makes me smile. This is "Tacky Fruit Tree" with bubble lights. You know the ornaments you purchase at Walmart after Christmas-the ones that no one wants because they are really tacky...well that is tacky fruit tree. It even has the traditional Christmas Pickle on it.

Finally our tree for this year is actually very clever, small, and funny. We call it "Bad Economy Tree". It is about three inches tall and can't even support one bulb. We figured it was all we could afford this year...but the tradition must go on.
I hope you enjoyed the tour through our festival of trees! Merry Christmas!

5 comments:

Holly said...

YAY!!!! I have been waiting and wondering! I love it!!! Thanks for posting all those and going down memory lane....I remember me and Jay's first Christmas at the "Rat Trap" Christmas Party and all those amazing trees. They are beautiful and I am so glad you put them up this year! I just love the new addition, the bad economy tree...how clever!

Unknown said...

What a fun tradition! You gave me lots of great tree decorating ideas. Oh, and I really love the bad economy tree!

Cassie said...

Yay. I was waiting to see the tree post. Loved them all.

Nancy Niederer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nancy Niederer said...

Whoops...I left a comment, but didn't proof read it. my words were so jumbled and miss-spelled it made no sense. I think it's becuase its like 50 degrees in our basement and i can barely feel my fingers! Anyway, I feel like such a sap for not coming to see the trees in time! Your mom mentioned on the 26 you guys were bsuy taking down trees and I felt AWFUL for spacing a visit to Christmas tree lane! So I appreciate these photos. Little bad economy tree is so sweet, but I think candy cane tree is my favorite. Great job!