Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories Christmas Tree Ornaments

In the past years, our tree has looked pretty much like this, below:

Which is how it looks now, as well.  I have an admission to make, and I will tell you that in all honesty, Spencer and I do not see eye to eye when it comes to Christmas trees.  I am traditional and he is more for "pretty" and such.  I like the ornaments the kids made in school, and that special people gave to me over the years, and that I have kept and not, for the most part, used in the last years.  He likes the matching bows, ribbons, flowers, and ornaments that all coordinate.  And to me that isn't all that important.  I am more for the memories.  I guess that's the genealogist in me.  So I have in the basement a container with ornaments that haven't been used in a while, but well, one day...maybe I will just haul them all out again! 

I do like the tree which our daughter decorates for us each year, but I miss the old, slightly mismatched sort of tree.

We have lots of German and European ornaments and so I enjoy those and we both agree on those, so no problems there!

Here is a little piece we found in Midway, Utah at Swiss Days two years ago.  We like to go to Swiss Days every chance we get.  It's got some very fun vendors and 2 years ago a man from Wyoming was selling these from patterns he purchased in Germany.  There were so many wonderful things to buy at his booth, I really could have bought a lot of them, because I liked them all.  He was very talented and the prices were not too bad for what you were getting.  Unfortunately, my house is not big enough to hold everything I would have liked! 

Here it is without the lights. 

And of course, the stockings.

I have 4 German pyramids, some Swedish items, Swiss and assorted things like this which are amongst my favorite items.

And my Christmas village.  This is just a small part of it.  I didn't even set all the pieces up this year.  I must be getting lazy! And why do I do all this craziness?  Just for the cute grandkids that enjoy seeing it and knowing that this is Christmas at Grandma's house!'
















 And last but definitely NOT least, and the "Reason for the Season" .
Spencer made this ceramic nativity when we were first married.  It has suffered a few broken parts over the years, but for the most part survived kids and grandkids quite nicely!

Enjoy the holidays and remember why we are celebrating it!

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories Day 2 TRADITION!

OK so can you just hear the word "Tradition" as it was sung in "Fiddler on the Roof" ?? Yes, I am being a  little independant and posting  "My own thing" this year.  Some posts may be the prescribed Geneablogger posts, but I am posting as things occur in this Christmas Season.  So, without further ado, here is post 2.
Today we followed tradition, that is, my daughter and 3 of her 4 kids, my parents and myself.  Every year we go to the German Markt sponsored by the German Chorus Harmonie.  They usually have some goodies that we all like, and so that has become "tradition".  This year it didn't seem as though there was quite as much selection as usual, but that could be my imagination.  So here some shots from this.

The boys waiting for the older generations to finish the shopping.  They already picked out what they wanted.

Here is what it looks like at the Markt.  It is in the St. John's Lutheran Church.  We got there a bit early.  We know what we want....and we are always on a mission!

My parents with Gisa and Volker.  Gisa is sort-of my dad's cousin from Freiberg.  My dad was raised by the Geisterts and these were the cousins of the Geistert family.

Mom and Thea. 

They gangs all here...

And a pic of the grandma...Honestly as I look through our pictures, I'm NEVER there.  I guess cause I am the one always taking the pictures.  Hmmm....

Next stop Siegfried's for a little German lunch and more shopping. 

Here are my parents and me having our lunch.  Ty asked that since I work so close by, do I come here EVERY DAY for lunch?  No, sorry, I eat my humble sandwich or whatever at my desk while working on curriculums....But he had a great idea...

So here we are at a new fun place to shop!  It was grand opening of Trader Joe's in Salt Lake.  So since "fighting crowds" for the Christmas shopping bunch, we were right there in the thick of things.  Lots of orgo foods and veggies.  Here's Brecklyn with her own small cart.  She wanted everything in there, but it was a little small.  They also put our stuff in cool Trader Joe bags.  We each got one, yeah!  I imagine that I will come here again on a less crowded day, but grand openings are fun and it's nice and new.

Great grandpa survived the long checkout line and waves.

Jamie texting hubby (I think)

Waiting to check out.  It really didn't take too long and we had a good time.  Shopping with "abandon". 
Anyway, then we went to Pirate O's, another favorite place to get goodies.  Well, I took a couple of pics of the nice displays of wonderful German and European stuff and the man came and said no pictures allowed.  So they lost some free advertising.  And they have such nice stuff.  Oh well!

So that was our fun day.  I'm tired, my feet hurt and it's a wrap for this post.  We will have more traditions, later I am sure.  Have a good weekend everyone!