Five years ago, our kids were either unborn or largely immobile. We had a beautiful tree…..in an I-Grew-Up-Really-Close-To-Gatlinburg kinda way.

Four years ago, we had no tree at all. Child 1 & 2 were too young to remember if we had a tree or not and we were already over the whole ‘pictures of baby under the tree’ thingy. (16 months apart. WOW, we were tired of a LOT by then.)

Three years ago, 1 & 2 would have noticed a missing tree. I have two shoe boxes full of broken ornaments. It was hilarious, but dangerous.

Two years ago, we’d given birth to Baby Godzilla. We came up with this and lived happily ever after:


We do garland and Christmas cards. That’s IT. (You might have noticed that some nut, put candy canes on it, but those will be broken and gone before the end of the week.)

Green, frugal, sentimental…unbreakable.

Ivory