Oh, Christmas Tree

About this time of the year, I usually start a mental argument concerning putting up the Christmas Tree.  Do I really want to do this for just me??  And, then for the past six years, I’ve gone to Albuquerque for the holidays and stayed ten days or so.  Do I really want to go to all the trouble to put up the tree when I will only enjoy it for a couple of weeks???

I always put up the tree.  And, I am reminded of …. 

Ornaments from the Christmas trees of my childhood.
Mother never let us put these on the tree but we could
carry them to Dad so he could put them on.

Ornaments that my father (who loved Christmas)
gave me

Ornaments made by various children

Ornaments that were gifts from loving friends

Ornaments made by those I love and miss

Ornaments that I made or bought
(Michael and I always bought a new one every year
and I've kept the tradition)

and certainly, The Christmas Pickle

Around the 1880's, it was claimed that the Christmas Pickle was a very old German tradition and that the pickle was the last ornament hung on the Christmas tree and then the first child to find the pickle got an extra present.  Possibly a myth but all the children enjoyed it.

Put them all together, and this is what you get.

Take care