Holiday *decorating* - (2020 Tree photos)

Jan 9th, 2019 - when I started this post.

This post might get bumped or it might be here when we get to Dec 25th.

May 26th, 2020

Maybe I will add some shots of the holiday touches that pop up in other rooms in my house.

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Dec 18, 2020

Earlier in the month, we had the fun idea of people sending me photos of their trees and then I would post them. My emails piled up and I apologize if you sent photos and I have not yet found them. It's been a complicated two weeks.

I was going to make a game of it - where we tried to match the name with the tree, but, I'm clearly down to the wire, so I'll just post them. Thanks to everyone who sent in photos. If you want to make a game of it - you could scroll down to where you see the photo - and then guess whose it is before you scroll to the caption.

Here are the people who sent photos in no particular order:

me (Jean), Chuck, Maggie, Alyce, CathyO, Lauren, Janet

Apologies for the weirdness of the columns and layout. Blogger has been having all kinds of fits and I've noticed other people mentioning it on other blogs. So, we'll just put up with it and assume that it will get back to normal someday. LOL. That's the story of our daily lives, eh?

The monkey was a gift that Alyce's mother received for her first Christmas in 1933.  

It’s a tradition that the monkey is the first thing put on the tree.  

Alyce's 2019 tree. 

A doggy 10th birthday cake for CathyO's daughter's dog. Lucky dog.

An early 60s tree that Cathy sent to her daughter when she was in college. 

Detail of the tree below.

This is a *cheer up* tree that Cathy's sister made one year when Cathy needed cheering up - and she says she treasures it. 

A box of ornaments from Lauren. Those are exactly the same vintage as the ones I recall from my youth.

A happy Santa from Lauren. 

I'll tuck in a side note about Santa here. Every year Mr Wilson plays Santa for a friend of his who has a party for the kids in her day care. This year, instead of a party, she asked Mr Wilson to just come over at the end of a regular day and they had a masked and distanced hello. I always have to help him get into the costume - and this year when it came to stuffing the tummy -- I clearly was not thinking -- and blurted out, "You don't actually need to add anything."

Awkward silence.

Mr Wilson, "You're telling me I'm as fat as Santa?"

Me: "Hey. Not all Santas are fat. Some of them just have a jolly, little belly. You look like a healthy Santa,"

Nothing more was said. 

Note to self: For next year - make him a t-shirt with a little padding in the front - which would be more comfortable than stuffing a pillow in the waistband.

Lauren's tree.

Chuck sent this - not a tree -- but a fun take on one of our favorite paintings.

One of Janet's trees. I hope to find the original email because I think she said she has more than one tree. 

My tree. I couldn't decide which photo looked better.

Many years ago, I worked on a project making the paddles for an auction and the numbers were attached to paint sticks. There were this many paint sticks left over and I had my dad cut them into various lengths and drill holes in them and I stacked them on a dowel. I've always loved the tree and wanted to think of some clever ornaments. It is a little wonky at the top because the branches are all smooshed down. I didn't bother to slide them up.

Sometimes I use it as a card and envelope holder. I suppose if I went back through the nearly 5,000 blog posts I could find the picture of it with envelopes stuck in the branches. It used to sit in a prominent place in my studio when I had the dream studio with all the space.

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On Dec 26th, Smash sent this photo of her tree.

Isn't it gorgeous?