Thursday, December 9, 2010

Dead Santas

How’s your holiday shaping up? Around here, we put up the tree:

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It’s alive. I hope I can keep it alive. I usually kill it in the first 24 hours then spend the next 20 days sweeping up pine needles.

And, then there are the ornaments. What a collection of odd little things. I guess that’s why I love them. They all symbolize something. You can learn a lot and I mean A LOT about someone by looking at their ornaments:

First year of marriage. Seems like eons ago (15  years). Why we are driving a car I’ll never know:

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Homer Simpson. In his famous words, “I like my beer cold, my TV loud and my homosexuals flaming.”P1080437

The martini glass. You all know I’m a lush so no explanation necessary.

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The kids (1, 4 years old). Collective “awwwww…”:

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You know who we root for around here (bye, bye Josh McD)

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No explanation necessary:

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Me, before my first marathon (Rock ‘n Roll Phoenix ‘09) when I had brown hair and wore USA track suits:P1080438

The newest ornament was a surprise. Remember that crazy RV trip we took this summer? Well, somewhere along the way in some gift shop, the kids bought this ornament. They used their own money and kept it a secret until now. Damn secretive kids buying me gifts with their own money! I oughta…

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Then there is the long procession of Santa photos on the mantle:

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7 years ago the kids sat on the mean Santa’s lap. Just look. He’s a monster.You can tell Emma was nervous:

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Funny thing about that was, later on that night we went to a Christmas party and that mean Santa was there, drunk, dressed in street clothes. No lie. I tried to shield the children.

Then, there is the nice Santa. This has got to be one of my favorite pictures ever. Sam at 3 years old:P1080447

Emma was checking out all these photos and talking about the “mall” Santas who we have already discussed are not real, just regular folk dressed up. She very thoughtfully said, “I wonder how many of these Santas are dead now?”  A touching Christmas thought.

And, now for the grand finale, the family holiday card.

This is the first year in the history of our family that a non-family member has made the card.

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But, he’s Dean. Everyone will understand.

How’s your holiday decorating shaping up? What do your ornaments say about you?

SUAR

45 comments:

  1. Love that Dean made it to your card!

    I've already vacuumed up so many pine needles its ridiculous.

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  2. I am honestly surprised that you didn't include Dean's name as part of the family!

    Love it!!

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  3. Best question ever from a kid. She definitely has your jeans.

    And it's a great point about the ornaments. The generally tell a history/story. Does it mean something though that now that my brother and I are out of the house my mom refuses to put up all the old ornaments and wants a "pretty" tree? My macaroni ornament from when I was 5 *is* pretty, dammit!

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  4. 1st comment? wow amazing. I love christmas ornaments and love the rv one your kids got you it is awesome. I wrote a little something about some of my ornaments here if you would like to see.

    http://travisandadriennejensenfamily.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-beginning-to-look-lot-like.html

    Nothing too fancy about the post but I love it and that's what matters. :) Merry Christmas

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  5. Dang, took too long posting and ended up #4---out of the medals again.

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  6. i put up my tree last week. but it's fake so there's no way i can kill it hahah.

    love all the ornaments! i love it when there are stories/memories behind them :)

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  7. I love this!!! We have pretty "filler" ornaments but many represent a significant event or interest of Matt or I. We've started collecting ornaments from any big trips we take and I even got a 26.2 at the marathon expo last weekend. When we were decorating the tree on Tuesday, Matt made the observation that "our tree tells a story" and he noted that the personal ones are his favorite. I whole-heartedly agree!

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  8. Holiday decorating waits until Christmas eve. My wife has enough ornaments for two trees, at least. There is some rule she follows about what goes on the tree each year. Apparently there is a theme, or something. It must be a girl thing.

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  9. Love that Deans on your card.

    Hmmm....maybe I should include some of mine with Meb on our cards.....

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  10. We put up our old tacky fake one that I keep hanging onto for those years when we know we just have too many things on the to do list to go out and buy a real one.
    Bestest ornaments on our tree? 7 little bears in sweaters given to us from a friend early in our marriage( second time around for both)Yours, mine and our adds up to 7 boys! Other favs - keepsake ornaments from the years they were born, and ornaments given to me from my little clients.

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  11. shut up that you have over 1000 followers, i might have to start adding poop and farts to my site.

    hey shut up and follow me - please

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  12. Very nice tree. I would like a live one but my wife does not like the smell.

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  13. All of the old photos are so cute. Not much decorating going on since I'll be in Palm Springs for christmas! I might bring a charlie brown tree though.

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  14. I demand a live tree so we get ours closer to Christmas (however, we never take it down before it dies so we live with our needles after the holidays). Since Spud is only 3 we stick it on our dining room table. The tree is never small though - I get as big a one as I can possibly fit/sucker my husband into buying and then ram the angel onto the top!

    My Christmas ornaments say that I'm a sentimental pack-rat. It horrifies my husband... My mum gave me most of my childhood ornaments when I got married. The shrinky-dink Mary I made when I was about 7 is one of my favourites - the hanger goes through her eye. :)

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  15. We put up our tree too! I love hanging up the ornaments and reminiscing. I have a tradition where I take my boys to pick out a new ornament. The twist though is that it has to be about something they're "into." So, this year, my oldest got a lego ornamant because he's crazy about legos! It makes it even more fun to go through their old ornaments and see what they liked that particular year!

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  16. haha! Love your Christmas cards! lol the fact that Dean made it onto the family card is awesome ;)

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  17. so cool that dean made your card! :) love it! its so you! :) love the decor in your house too! :)

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  18. Our ornaments are in a box (third year in a row), so I'm not sure what that says about us. Maybe once we start spending Christmas where we live instead of flying "home" for the better part of December we'll get a tree. I do love my ornament collection, though, and keep adding to it even though I can't display them. We actually have a large stocking collection (we buy new ones every year) and hang them up all over the house. I guess that counts; they're very eclectic.

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  19. And why wouldn't you put Dean on your family Christmas card???
    I like your tree.

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  20. Ohh Your tree is soo pretty. I love those old ornaments that are handmade and crazy looking.. My family has some that we pull out every year. They are so fun.

    What a great looking family you've got!! :)

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  21. Omg, this is our same Christmas card from shutterfly...right? actually I accidentally ordered the brown version but it came looking all black and white and I did black and white photos so I've been trying to add a little color by using a red pen very carefully on the merry Christmas and the 2010...I kicked myself for not getting the red one like you. :) Good taste Beth. Beautiful tree!

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  22. there's a SUAR Christmas ornament?! THAT I LIKE! =)

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  23. My ornaments are saying 'Bah humbug' at the moment. Truth is - I haven't pulled our tree out yet and there's been some debate about whether it will make an appearance at all. The nativity scene will make an appearance at least.

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  24. Why were YOU driving?

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  25. that is one thing I loved doing growing up-decorating the tree with all these ornaments that meant SO much to us as a family. Some ugly (I made them! eeek) some special (the antiques from grt gma) and some just hilarious!!

    Beautiful!

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  26. An SUAR ornament?! Is that being added to the "gift shop" of things we can purchase soon? :)

    Did you hear Sarah Palin scramble over Dean's last name w/ Barbara Walters last night?! Apparently she's reading his book, but took no time to decide how to say his last name. Oof.

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  27. love the holiday post. christmas card is adorable.

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  28. I was all oooing and ahhing and thinking how cute this post was and then I laughed out loud and so hard I started crying when I saw you put Dean on your Christmas card! Frigging priceless!!!!!

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  29. I love when kids do little things like that and show what amazing people they are. I like to take all the credit for my outstanding parenting haha. I also love the mantle full of Santa pictures. Such a cute idea! And hey, if I had a picture with Dean, he might be the ONLY thing on my Christmas card...every year.

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  30. Awe such beauties you have!! Don't you decorate your tree with your medals?? So far my trees do well, I hope I haven't jinxed myself. Our ornaments are kind of boring except for my starbucks one and the runner girl, and the 26.2 one! Merry Christmas!!

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  31. How could Dean NOT make the card, right??

    I love sentimental ornaments with stories behind them.

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  32. AWESOME! I LOVE ornaments..thanks for sharing yours and only you would have Dean on your Christmas card...

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  33. wait
    wait
    wait.

    YOU were [FREAKING] in phoenix last year RnR?
    now I'm pissed.

    I mean MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

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  34. My ornaments say I like popsicles (many sticks). Yours are awesome! Awesome jumping pic on the Christmas card! How did you do that! I would put Dean on my Christmas card too especially if we were tight and all like you guys are!

    Mean Drunk Santa..LOL!!! Have a great weekend Beth!

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  35. Your ornaments totally fit your personality. Love the suar and running girl one. Awesome. Love the Christmas card but I still haven't gotten mine from you in the mail yet:)

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  36. How sweet of your kids to buy the ornament with their own money!

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  37. HAHAHAHAHAHA! I am home sick [again, with more stomach issues] and if it's true that laughter is the best medicine - your post is definitely helping me to feel better! It was the dead Santas...how funny! No XMAS decorations up here yet - our dogs get their pictures taken with Santa ever year (no kids yet, obviously!) so I'll have to dig those out and our tree and some other random sparkly things. For some reason, I just haven't been in the holiday spirit yet this year......

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  38. P.S - you have an awesome family! ;) Love the pictures of the kids on your card!!

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  39. Great to see another family tree. The "fancy" ones are pretty but I much prefer a tree full of memories. Eventually maybe I'll get mine put up lol.

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  40. I hate the Denver Broncos. Please don't defriend me.

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  41. OMG- bust out laughing from that dead Santa comment! Awesome!

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  42. I love family trees. The fancy schmancy themed ones look so...fake...to me. Our tree has a Baby's First for each kid, and an Our First for us along with others that range from Buzz Lightyear to a surfboarding Santa to Yertle the Turtle. We have fun pulling them out and talking about them and where we got them while we decorate.

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  43. I love Christmas! I can't wait until next year and I can decorate!

    I think it's awesome Dean made the card. Lol.

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  44. Lol@ the mean Santa comment! First time reading your blog…awesome!

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