Comments on: Ho, ho, ho! It’s Holidad!

By: evlqn

evlqn — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:46:23 +0000

Tanner was German Shepherd, rottweiler, chow, lab and wolf. He was the best dog on the planet and we miss him everyday, even though we love our new dog, Spencer.

By: Karen Hawkins

Karen Hawkins — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:23:14 +0000

eviqn, I love your Charlie Brown Navity story! My grandmother had a set like that when I was a child and I always played with it. It’s so cool that after all these years, it’s still precious to you and your family — that’s a definite keeper set!

I’ve never heard of a dog that traded out Christmas ornaments before. What breed was he? That takes a smart dog!

By: evlqn

evlqn — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:51:46 +0000

Our dog Tanner loved Christmas and the color red. He would trade you a toy for a red ornament. He would take the ornament off the tree and put a toy in the branches where it had been. Tanner hated when you didn’t go for a trade and took his ornament back.

By: Karen Hawkins

Karen Hawkins — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:26:15 +0000

Michelle B, that is such a lovely story … and the details are precious. I could just see the wand star attached with a paper clip. Thank you for sharing!

Moonsanity, the coolest thing is how your family took that tree and made it yours — over and over. I love that!

ladydawgfan, it sounds like your whole house is filled with memories! I love your MistleTOAD. I’ve never seen one of those but it sounds sooo cute.

Louisa, I’m sorry to hear about the loss of your dog and your friend, but what a beautiful way to remember them! I’m sure your Christmas is filled with thoughts of them both. Btw, one of my dogs loves to sleep beside the Christmas tree. That always makes me smile.

By: evlqn

evlqn — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:05:34 +0000

I can only remember having one artificial tree when I was a kid, daddy hated it so we had live ones ever after.
We had a mismatched Nativity set, Mary was larger than Joseph and Jesus was plastic. The shepard and angel were the same size but the Wise men weren’t. And the creche was cheap cardboard but it went up every year in a place of honor for as long as I could remember. Then my first year here in Oregon someone came in and stole a bunch of our decorations including the Nativity. My sister and I bought Mom & Dad a stunning Lladro set but it just doesn’t have the same feeling as the old one and no one really cares about it. We have ornaments that have been made for us by people we love, like the ceramic gingerbread man my youngest son made for me and the ceramic heart. For years I had the paper plate angel my oldest made, i have no idea where it went, but I’m not happy. I have the dragon ornament my sister painted for me and the fabric mice a friend from LA made over 25 years ago. I recently talked on Facebook to her daughter about them, Amy had forgotten until I reminded her. We frequently get our Charlie Brown’s and then fill them with love, lights, and ornaments.

By: Louisa Cornell

Louisa Cornell — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:20:24 +0000

The leland cypress outside my kitchen window has blue and white lights on it and has every year since my deaf Great Dane died. She is buried under the tree and we call it Glory’s tree. She used to love to sit and watch the Christmas tree lights. Every night I would turn them on and she would lie their watching, her tail wagging. I had to turn them off to make her come to bed. Now when I turn the lights on I can still see her, lying there enjoying the lights, tail wagging.

The angel on my tree is one I made. I made one for each of the three “Fairy Dog Mothers.” Ladies who worked with the humane society and with whom I have done all sorts of rescue work. The angel on my tree is the one I gave Rebecca. She was a tireless champion for animals. Her angel is a beautiful porcelain doll I dressed in burgundy velvet with charms of dogs and cats all over her skirt. In her outstretched hands is a porcelain puppy and at her feet are two porcelain cats. She has broad white wings and a slightly crooked halo. We lost Rebecca to breast cancer five years ago. Her husband gave me the angel back so it could sit on the top of my tree the way it did on theirs.

By: ladydawgfan

ladydawgfan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:38:16 +0000

What a GREAT topic!! We have a LOT of precious ornaments on our tree and around the house for Christmas. The oldest of all of them is the angel that sits on top of the tree. She was purchased by my parents for their first Christmas together – in 1958!! Her hair has been replaced several times, she no longer lights up unless she is sitting on top of a bulb, one of her wings is cracked, and yet, it wouldn’t be Christmas without her on top of the tree.

She watches over a bunch of ornaments that have been gathered over the years – Mom’s “special ornaments.” They include all of the ornaments that we kids made for her in elementary school, the crocheted bells and angels that were made when half of the ornaments were destroyed somehow and there was no money to replace them, and other collectible ornaments that she insists on hanging on the tree.

Around the house, we have an elf in a mistletoe throne that hangs in the dining room and is almost as old as the angel. We also have a “MistleTOAD,” a frog wearing a Santa hat that I found in a Hallmark store. He hangs in the living room.

We have many more Christmas decorations, and the house is literally filled with memories!

By: Moonsanity

Moonsanity — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:01:40 +0000

My mother-in-law gave us this horrible TALKING Cmas tree that’s about 2 1/2 foot tall. Wow, was it annoying. I decided to “lose” the electrical cord, take off the hat, and make it into a mini Christmas tree that we put out each year. The kids decorate it with smaller ornaments, and we even have a little topper for it. This year we took it out of the plastic tub and it was crooked. We kept looking at it trying to figure out what was going on, then we realized it had bent and when we tried to straighten it broke right off! The kids were sad, so we took the top part and made a MINI tree out of it. BAHAHAHAHAHA It’s one homely tree, but they were happy.

By: Michelle B

Michelle B — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:15:48 +0000

Janae, as interesting as the evacuation stories are, my DH stayed behind and closed the base down, his stories are really wild.

That same year we were all separated for Christmas, our first Christmas a part. Our DD#1 was 4 years old. We sent Daddy a small Christmas tree and DD snapped the star off her wand from her fairy princess costume at Halloween. Dad recognized it from the pictures and was so touched. It was attached with a paper clip.

By: Karen Hawkins

Karen Hawkins — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:26:28 +0000

Deb, awwww! What a wonderful story! And you still have the pom-pom to celebrate that first meeting. That’s so adorable.

Sabrina, I want to see a picture of those! My grandmother had tinsel like that. You never see it any more and you’re right, it does look very antique and gorgeous. It really catches the light.

As for the ‘flocking’, I’ve never heard it called that; I’ve just heard it called ‘artificial snow’. Interesting!