A Very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year to our kids and all of our friends around the world. Since we can't have you here with us we thought we'd share images of our tree with its memories of family, children now grown, places from Morgantown, WV and Annapolis, MD and Moscow, ID, to Ulm, Germany and Padova, Italy, and the very many friends who's ornaments brighten our Christmas and whose lives enrich our years.
Tree top. Please note the Faculty of Science cap from Padova on Linus who is starring at the top of the tree.
"TB" in his place of honor on the tree. TB has graced every tree we have had. He began his career in Morgantown when a very poor Tom and Carrie bought a "Charlie Brown" tree with a large hole. TB filled he hole and has been a tradition ever since. TB wears his Faculty of Science hat in honor of our adopted second home. The little blue ornament was made by Kate in pre-school and the white icicle is from Heidi's very early days.
TB and Snoopy. Snoopy is dressed in his astronaut suit. He was present for the party celebrating the first Moon Landing by Armstrong and Aldrin. The glass moon to the top of the photo is from Heidelberg.
TB and friends. The dachel is one of a number of Steiff toys on the tree in addition to TB himself, of course.
Can you find the beaver? The small wooden ornament is an old and treasured gift from Bill and Brenda.
Kate's crab (or is that crabby?)Kate is inordinately fond of crabs dating from her very early days. Here's a crab she made in pre-school.
Another Kate creation is the elephant in this photo. There's a German wine barrel from Heidelberg here as well. Sadly it didn't come with any of the glorious German wine in it.
Heidi's icicle. Hard to imagine, but the lanterns and miniature popcorn are as old as she is.
A "bat" toy. The velvet pears were crib toys for both Heidi and Kate. Affectionately called "bat" toys they graduated from crib to tree long ago.
Mardi Gras ornament. The Mardi Gras ornament is one of the New Orleans traditions on the tree. In addition you'll see Mardi Gras beads, masks, and the little red bows. The bows honor my "aunt and uncle" Nan and Audie. They were so poor when they started out that they couldn't afford the little wire hooks for ornaments. They used old ribbon to tie their ornaments on and we've followed their tradition.
Stockings.The two "stockings" were favors from an Alpha Xi Delta sorority party from when we were in college at Centenary. If you were to look very closely you'll see the tiny AXD (left) and TKE (right) pins sewn on the bears. They are important because they may be the only items ever sewn by Carrie. Ask Kate and Heidi about fixing buttons or hems.
Joyce's castles. Joyce has a habit of finding unusual Christmas presents. The set of European castles she found a few years ago are among the prizes on the tree. Appropriately this is Neuschwanstein.
German toys from Regensburg. We found an amazing toystore in Regensburg and bought them out. A string of sausage on the tree? Why not? The German children's wagons are hay wagons so we also had to buy a full size one to match this ornament. You'll see it along with several other bears and assorted critters in the photo below.
A German child's wagon from Regensburg." The larger bear in the wagon is almost 100 years old and as far as we can tell is one of the original "Teddy"s.
Teething toys. The multiple ring teething toy and the ring to the left were from Heidi and Kate and received considerable use. Josh has one like the one at left.
Treescape II.An unsuccessful attempt to show off the lights. Sorry, the flash on the digital camera doesn't turn off.
The Advent wreath. This is one of Carrie's Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Wayne's traditions that we borrowed.
