Our Christmas Tree!

Our Christmas tree truly has a beautiful meaning behind each & every branch!


The tree itself was the first tree my mom purchased after separating from my Dad many years ago. Once I found out my mom was going to get rid of the tree, I told her that I wanted it for our house. This tree has truly seen its better days. Every year, Keith & I talk about buying a new one, but in my heart, I just can't bring myself to it! That tree holds so many memories for me! When I look at it now, I can still remember all the Christmas spent as a child in my mother's and grandmother's home...rushing down the stairs very early on Christmas morning just waiting to see what Santa left for us! As long as that tree is standing...it will always have a place in our home.

The green lights...I know you can not tell from the photos that are featured below, but our tree only have green lights on it (along with a few bubble candle lights). The first Christmas Keith & I spent together...many years ago...we were not in the same financial situation as we are in today...so about three days before Christmas, some good friends of ours gave us a Christmas tree to use. Keith went out to purchase some lights for the tree and since we were on a tight budget, he picked up the ones that were on sale. When he came home and we opened the boxes up, I noticed that all the light bulbs were the same color. I than asked him which color did he buy & he replied that he purchased multi-colored lights. Knowing that they were not multi-color lights, I than had him plug them in...only to find that they weren't multi-colored at all....but all GREEN! We had a good laugh & decided to use them anyway, figuring that next year we would be able to purchased multi-colored lights. As the years went on, we never purchased any multi-colored lights, but purchased more strands of green ones. Every year when it comes time to put up the tree, Keith insists on going out to get some multi-colored light, but I tell him flat out "NO"! I know the tree looks crazy...the tree being green and than green lights on top of that...but every time I look at those green lights, it always takes me back to our little apartment in Manassas, Virginia that we spent our first Christmas in and how far we have come...

As for the ornaments, we have so many that we have collected over the years! I have a ton of them from my childhood and it is amazing how I remember who gave which ones (and of course I have my favorite that goes in the tree every year first...it was from my Grandmother that she purchased for me from The Globe Store back in 1978). Keith has quiet a few too. Ranging from his favorite football team, The Redskins to his favorite Nascar driver. We also have some from our first Christmas together after we were married, many from our vacations, and ones from after buying our new home. Now the tradition continues with Francesca. She has ornaments stating her first Christmas and other ones that we purchased along the way during our travels (we even have a few from China when we were there back in November of 2005).

The Chinese Angel tree topper...I have always had a hand-crafted Santa that went on top of our tree that I purchased (OK splurged on) way before meeting Keith. It was proudly displayed on our tree every year...until the year Francesca came home. I wanted our tree topper to mean something to our family. So after many discussions, Keith and I decided on purchasing this Precious Moments Chinese Angel tree topper. We both felt it was the perfect choice and it truly looks beautiful on our tree (I just hope that the girls appreciate it when they get older and understand why we picked this special one).


As for the bubble candle lights...well that's an easy one...I always loved the way they add that little something "old-fashion" to the tree! I had to search high & low to find ones all the same color and when I did they only had two boxes left. So even though we don't have many of those bubble lights, they still add that something extra special to our tree every year!


I look at our tree and feel truly blessed! It holds so many memories for me from my childhood... and has made new memories for me with Keith and Francesca! It may be just a simple, old, worn out tree with green lights, but to me....it is pure magic and I can't wait to be sharing it with Sofia too!




Our Christmas Tree!









Our Chinese Angel Tree Topper...









Keith's favorite ornament...given to us by my Aunt Mela on our first offical Christmas (yes it has a bride and groom on it with our names and date we were married)













Francesca's favorite ornaments! She can't decide if Ariel is or the Tony Stewart ones. So since she couldn't decide, when she was placing them on the tree, she put them all together.









My two favorite ornaments! The one my Grandmother gave me all those years ago (it is just a simple globe ornament with a wintery wonderland and a ice-skater on the inside) and the one that my sister gave to me a few years ago...the sister purse...that she too has the matching one displayed on her tree. (Noticed how I put them together as well...as Keith is always telling, "Like mother, like daughter")









One of the few ornaments we purchased when in China. I got this one when we went to Wal-Mart in Nanchang.









I hope you enjoyed reading about our Chrismtas tree for I truly loved sharing the memories with all of you!