Oh Christmas Tree!!!

I'm tellin ya, my favorite part about Christmas is getting my tree out and up. It is a 12 foot tree, comes in two boxes and 6 or 7 sections. It is huge, so we totally have to rearrange the room's furniture to make it fit. I have an eclectic tree. It can be divided in to a few themes per se. I don't have that gorgeous designer pretty tree, but every ornament on it has a story and I can tell you where it came from. I have the basics- matte finish glass balls in jewel tones, and tons of glass icicles in all different sizes. And then I have my themes-- Precious Moments, Snowmen, photo ornaments,snowflakes, candy canes and everything else. I have been in a family ornament exchange for a number of years as well as doing one with my Bunco group, so my collection of one of a kinds has grown considerably for that reason.

Some of my favorite ornaments are ones that are the only one on of its kind on the tree. Like the one from Phoenix Children's Hospital we got when he was admitted for 2 weeks on his Christmas. Or the ones I picked up along the way in Europe two summers ago. Or this set of awesome White House Christmas ornaments we get each year. Odd I know, but they are so cool. The Historical Society in DC puts them out. Or a few Disney bells from the Christmas we spent at Disney World. Or any that are handmade. Let's face it, I love 'em all...I have a few dozen Precious Moments ornaments, I love them and I get new ones each year.
Every year I find one ornament for each member of the family to put on the tree. So, there are 3's of some, then 4's and so on as our family grew. This year I got these ones, that say "Middle, Oldest and Youngest Child -Mom's Favorite" I thought they were so cute.
I love little things like this ornament I have from my junior year when Rusty used it to answer me to a dance.

I have photos of the kids from every year in little frames, this year they are these cute blue snowflakes.

But I have to say the best part of having my tree up this year is this...

Built in babysitter for Brenner. It's like the tallest baby mobile around. My colicky, crying, reflux baby will lay still under this one branch and watch the lights and ornaments FOREVER. He has finally gotten his coordination so good that he can grab at the balls (non breakable of course) and hit the bells around him. A lot of the time he will be just talking and cooing at the lights. It's just about the cutest thing really. In fact the first picture of this post has Brenner doing his thing...

When I break it down and put everything away I have 4 bins of just ornaments. I love it. And believe it or not, one of them is still full in my closet cause I ran out of energy to hang anymore! Last year we got the boys a little 4 foot tree that has all the 'kid' stuff on it. And of course it is filled with sports, cartoons and a whole lotta blue.

What's your tree look like? Do you have one favorite ornament?