Memory Tree

It's tradition in our family to get a real Christmas tree each year.  We've been going to the same place in Highland for three or four years, followed up with dinner at Texas Corral, which is a favorite of the kids because you get to drop your peanut shells on the ground. They know the drill. We go pick out our tree. We don't leave until mom gets a decent picture of the whole bunch.

I get a little out of the Christmas spirit when we're bombarded weeks in advance with holiday displays in the store. It started even before Halloween that I was seeing wrapping paper and trees in the stores. By the time Thanksgiving arrived, I was already overloaded.

But, once we got the tree inside and got lights on it, it felt like Christmas and everything seemed brighter.

After 21 years of marriage, we have accumulated a lot of ornaments. Way too many to put on one tree. So, this year, I decided that we'd put up just a few special ornaments (like my Chicago Cubs, Elvis and Chamber of Commerce glass ornament) and then the rest of the tree would have only ornaments that had names, dates or pictures on them. All the Santa and snowman and teddy bear ornaments are taking a year off and staying in the boxes. We really could fill a tree with just the homemade ornaments that the kids have made at school over the years. I love those. It 's a tree full of memories.

 This one has a name on the back of Abbott, our first family dog.

From my nephew, Ryan.

That's our current doggie. ;)