Apparently, I’m one of “those moms” that’s a bit too much of a control freak and has to have two Christmas trees. One for me to make pretty and the other for everyone else.

I always like to encourage individual expression, just not when it messes with my mojo 🙂

So this is the kids’ tree. They decorate it from start to finish, I do not rearrange anything after they go upstairs, promise.

They love to put the ornaments up because one of our traditions is that they choose an ornament each year. I write their name and year with Sharpie on the bottom so they love to remember some of their more….uh…. interesting choices over the years.

Like when Jared wanted to collect very large owl ornaments.

We have a very large assortment of homemade ornaments from every preschool and primary class. And here, size really doesn’t matter.

And a trip down memory lane from when Corinne made this in preschool and since then has grown up to choose cell phone, iPod and fancy shoe ornaments. (Shedding a tear here).

And, we have some real treasures like our beloved scantily clad Princess Leia from a white elephant ornament exchange.

I actually laugh out loud almost everytime I pass this tree in our family room. It’s our family in a nutshell. For better and mostly worse.

And, I have my tree, that faces the front of the house.

The one that the neighbors see.

So they think we are normal.

I collect angel ornaments for my tree because they remind me of my mom. When she was ill, this scripture gave her strength and comfort.

“I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”

So, everytime I find an angel ornament, I think of her and the example she was to me.

Especially when I see a crazy angel, cause she loved to have fun.

My Christmas trees aren’t perfect and I’m not submitting them to any blogs to be featured but I just thought I’d share with you why they make me happy.

Happy tree trimming. 🙂