Favorite Ornaments

We put up our Christmas tree the day before Thanksgiving this year. Only because the girls had that impromptu extra day off and so we had some time to fill. It was kind of nice getting it up early.

My favorite part is putting on the ornaments. To say our tree is decorated eclectically is putting it mildly. Most of our ornaments are hand-me-downs, the lights are colored and white, and there's really no rhyme or reason to it, and I love that. Instead of having color-coordinated lights and etc, we have a little bit of everything and that means more to me than how it looks.  I love that each ornament has a memory associated with it...

Like the ornaments of cats and Winnie-the-Pooh characters that my mom sent to me (along with the cutest Charlie brown tree) the year I was stuck at college for Christmas..

Or the Huicol ornaments I bought in Mexico for us one year.

And the sleeping mouse ornament from my childhood that I've always thought was the cutest ever.

Then there is the angel with my name on it. See, I am an angel!

Stupid upside down blogging picture. This cute elf was made by my Grandma many years ago. You can see by all the sequins that it was a lot of work. I think there were quite a few she made, and I'm glad I got passed this by my Mom a few years back.

Lindsay's first ornament.

The cute little red sled ornament. Another one passed to me from my Mom. I remember putting this one on our tree when I was a kid. Totally reminds me of sledding in Eastern Montana down my Grandma's hill...

One of our wedding presents, thus some of the first ornaments for our family.

 And the tree. Handmade ornaments from the girls from their daycare or school over the years, ornaments passed on to me from my Mom from when I was a kid and the new ornaments that I buy Santa brings each year in our stockings to continue on the tradition.

What kind of Christmas tree do you put up? Does it match or is it like mine? Is it real? Ours is fake, but I put pine scented candles everywhere.