Christmas at the Hall's

The dishwasher had barely begun chugging away on Thanksgiving day when the KB began to tackle the Christmas decorations.  It was night fall when she finished.  It is a tradition for the men folk (Steve, Jon, and me) to set up the trees and then stand back, watch the master (KB) work.  Phyl loves to decorate the house for Christmas and as for the rest of us, well, we get to heck out of the way.  We learned a long time ago that "helping" meant being in ear shot only.  

There are three trees in the house.  The kitchen tree, seen here to the left, is decorated with "kitchen" stuff.  I know, who would have thought, right? Kitchen stuff is classified as decorations that you would associated with the kitchen.  Things like little wine bottles, pots, a chef or two, tea cups, tea pot, little wooden spoons, and so on.

The family room tree is for the boys.  For the past christmas' we bought an ornament each year for each boy.  This is where they end up.  (right)  There is the tennis racket for Steve and the football for Jon.  The Texas A&M ornament for Steve and the Spiderman for Jon.

The main tree is in the living room.  When we were first married, we were like many young couple starting out.  We had bills and very little money for "extras" but the KB began a collection of ornaments.  We made a big deal about hanging each new addition to the tree every year.   So the "big" tree reflects our lives, the people in our lives, where we lived and what we found important.   An example is an ornament from the Governor of Maryland given to us by our close friends.  I find myself looking at each ornament and reminiscing.  

The all of our friends and family we want to wish each of you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.