Monday, December 11, 2006

A Charlie Brown Christmas


Here's a photo of our tree. Believe it or not, this year I'm absolutely in LOVE with our tree. Why? Because it symbolizes us and our family. Here's the deal with our tree. It was a hand-me-down. The year that Scott and I got married (1998 if you're writing a book) we didn't have a lot of money because we had just plunked down everything we had for our first house. We were also all of 22 years old, so we were young, poor and in need of a tree. (Ironically now we're older, poor and still in need of a tree.)

Scott's aunt had a yardsale and the tree was in it. Nobody bought the poor tree because who buys a Christmas tree in August? So, she called us and told us to come over and go through the yardsale leftovers (is this sounding hillbilly yet?) and take what we could use. She knew we were young newlyweds and she had nice stuff. So, we got a microwave and the tree.

This is our 8th Christmas with the tree and I still love it. It's got gaping holes of course because it was a cheesy tree you buy at Wal-Mart (the box still has the tag on it) and it's not like any of the new styles that you can buy today. I think that's what makes me like it so much. It's like the Charlie Brown tree. It's not the prettiest one, but it has some sort of meaning.

What else excited me is that this year Scott finally let me put white lights on it. I've always wanted white lights but he always made me go with colored. I LOVE the white ones! So - here's my tree with the white lights, the gaping holes where the branches just don't meet and all of our ornaments. Maggie helped me put them on. There are ones in there from when Scott and I were kids and ones that Maggie has made and I bought a few for Addie this year.

This is what it's like to spend Christmas with the Rohlfs'.

8 comments:

Angie said...

We have an ass-ugly tree, too. Cluttered with mismatched, yet meaningful ornaments. No color scheme other than "hideous".

2 years ago I went out (to Wal-Mart, thankyouverymuch) and bought a new pre-lit tree and all the blue and silver ornaments I could fit in my cart.

Now we have 2 trees, the ass ugly one lives in the basement and I let the kids decorate it and I don't even go all anal about where they put things or insist that they can't put 300 ornaments on the same branch. The other is in the livingroom,and it is miiiine (cackle). Mine all mine! It's so purty and color coordinated and I put the ornaments on one set at a time so that I can evenly space each size/group. Shut up.

Sheri said...

awww, it's purty, ginger!

Anonymous said...

I am partial to white lights! Sweet story Ginger to go with those purdy lights!

Anonymous said...

Awe! I love your tree!! I have white lights too, tried colored ones last year and it just didn't do the trick for me...LOL...so back to white this year. I also grabbed a two foot tree this year for the kids to decorate all by themselves with paper and homemade ornaments...that's thier tree, the big one is mine.hehehe

Alicia said...

That is beautiful! And an even more beautiful story! Love the ribbon and the white lights!

Anonymous said...

What a great tree! I just love this time of year! Hey...can you email your address asap...thanks!

Anonymous said...

Keep that tree- forever. The story behind it is precious. I'm seeing a scrapbook layout there...
t.

Kristi Smith said...

How funny. I tried to do a pretty tree this year, all color coordinated and I think it looks boring. It is sad because it doesn't have all the homemade and mismatched ornaments on it!!! Love your blog!