Our first Christmas.......
 

This will be our first Christmas as retired snowbirds. We are so excited! We were last in TV for Columbus Day weekend. It was raining, and hubby was watching football, so I put up the Christmas tree and all the decorations. This way when we get there on Dec 23rd, it will be all ready and waiting for us!

Our tree is up , but not decorated yet. The grandchildren will come over this weekend and dress the tree. The only ornaments I brought with us are of the grandkids. I have picture ornaments of them from the time they were born.

I had three trees up north, but the most important tree was their tree . I would set an evening aside, they would all come over,we would make cookies and then they would dress the tree. In the beginning all the ornaments were
Around the bottom, it was so funny and of course as they grew the tree became a thing of beauty.

We have two grandchildren who live here in Fl. Will continue the tradition with them, and miss terribly the five up north.

We rethought the Christmas Tree thing and are taking down the fake one (sending it back to China) and cut a fresh tree today and got a Made in USA tree stand.
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...1322943575.jpg

Fake "china" tree
 

You made me laugh! The fake "China" tree... boy do I get where you are coming from. Everything's made in China. My husband says when we move to TV we aren't buying anything made in China! Is that possible???

Our tree comes up from the basement and out of the box every year - our $29 Christmas tree. It's actually pretty sad looking - not as fancy as the newer artificial ones sold nowadays. But it's special to us: Sandy and I bought it.....ummmm.....a loooooooooong time ago - for the first Christmas we ever spent together.

I don't know what's held up better - us or the tree!!!!???? :pepper2:

Bill :)

Our 3' tree is on the lanai, decorated with multi-colored lights and red bows. On the top is "Angel," a cardboard cone angel with mousy blonde hair, wings that have been taped and re-taped back on, and a rather crooked halo. We bought her for our first Christmas 40 years ago and wouldn't think of putting anything else atop our tree! The rest of the house is decorated with the nutcrackers that we have accumulated over the years...some are 3" tall and the rest go up to 36" tall. Each one has a special meaning and a special place to sit.

Mac9, I have an angel that I put at the top of my tree every year. My oldest son made it in kindergarten many years ago. She is made of construction paper, crayons, lace doily and glitter...lots of glitter! I had to laminate her two years ago as she was really beginning to show her age. I gave it back to my son this year. He recently got married and he and his wife have their own tree where our angel sits atop!

With our house still on the market in VA, we have to be a little conservative with the decorations, but we do have a 3' artificial tree on a table, along with a few other decorations. We will be visiting the kids in NYC over the actual Christmas weekend, so no real tree this year. First time ever in our 38 years of marraige we don't have a real tree. So now the big question: does anyone in TV get a real tree at Christmas? Looks from these posts that everyone has gone the pre-lit route. Are real trees expensive in FL? We assume no one is cutting their own down there. :-) Being optimists at heart, we have every expectation of being in TV next year for ChHristmas, so we are thinking of buying a pre-lit when they go on sale right after 12/25!

Bill and Sue

This year we bought a little Norfolk Island Pine and decorated it with lights and red bows. (I can't seem to find the box with all the tree decorations in it) I hesitated to post this 'foreign tree' admission after I googled Norfolk Island... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Island
I always thought Norfolk Island was off the coast of Virginia. :laugh:

Happy Holidays Bill and Sue! Where in VA are you? We are in Chesapeake...next month The Villages!

OK, Christmas tree de ja vue. Got the first one down and now up with the new one. Twice is nice.

Great idea!

Hi! We are in Providence Forge, halfway between Richmond and Williamsburg. We will be visiting TV from 1/18 - 1/20. Are you snowbirds, or will you also be visiting?

B&S

Hahaha! "Got the first one down..." Does this mean you just took down last year's tree so you could put up this year's tree? :laugh: