December 20, 2005
tree pictures
The first year Rudder and I had a tree together, we bought a bunch of gold and red shiny balls and some special sparkly ornaments. We still have most of those, but everywhere (well, almost everywhere) we've traveled we've picked up an ornament fo the tree. This year we actually had enough to leave the balls off, but I put a few on, both out of sentiment and because they do make it look better when the lights are off because they show up better than most of our travel ornaments.
Here are pictures of our tree and a few of the ornaments:
The tree lit up - rudder had red, blue and green light strands left over from the holiday boat parade and decided to add some color to our usual white lights on the tree.
A Space Shuttle, from when we lived in Texas and worked on the space program.
A Beefeater, from the Tower of London.
A Mountie, from our trip to Edonton for the World Masters' Games last summer.
Our only rowing ornament.
A tassel from our trip to Korea.
Our tree topper - it actually "flies" in circles around the tree top.
A painted in peacock I picked up on a work trip to San Antonio.
The rose window from the Naitonal Cathedral in Washington D.C.
This ornament is pre-Rudder, from my very first tree. A friend was visiting me over Christmas and I didn't want him to be deprived of his tree so I bought a tiny table-top one. This ornament was from the shop of the nature center where I volunteered - it's actually made from a tuna-can lid.
On the left, Delft china Rudder bought on a business trip tot he Netherlands (one of many - his company's based there). On the right, Santa sleeping on a park bench. This probably requires some explanation. Not too long after Rudder and I had moved in together, he took me and several of our rowing friends on a trip to New Orleans. Our housemate J, seeing several homeless people sleeping on the benches not too far from the Cafe du Mondes (home of world-famous (really) chicory coffee and beignets) commented, "Look - they have a bed AND breakfast!" We were all drunk or tired enough for that to be extremely funny. So this ornament reminds me of J, and our other rowing friends from Houston, and that first trip to New Orleans.
The whole tree, unlighted. You can see a few cards stuck in the tree - Rudder's family does that, for cards that contain gifts (gift certificates, checks, or whatever).
By the way, this year we got a Grand Fir - looks a lot like a Doug fir but the branches are sturdier and easier to hang ornaments on, and didn't leave itchy red holes in us like a Noble Fir.
Posted by dichroic at December 20, 2005 07:52 PM