Each Tree Has a Story, Part 9
I hinted a little about this one in Part 2 of this series. But I don’t know how many of you caught it.
The year before last, our family room tree had so many ornaments on it, I actually had to search and search in order to find a place for them all. Which meant I seriously started thinking about how to solve that problem.
After a total of 4-5 hours of placing ornaments on it, I knew I had to make a suggestion for the following year. I hinted to my husband about it, but he just looked at me like I had two heads, and said, “Yeah, right! We need to do that like I need another hole in my head.”
Well. He should’ve known by now not to say anything to me like that. I already had it planned. And the hole in his head could be arranged.
So the following year as soon as the artificial trees were out in the stores, I started looking for what I wanted. And since I wasn’t being totally successful, I finally told him about it. And believe it or not, he bought into the idea!
As I mentioned in Part 2, I’ve collected the Hallmark Barbie ornaments since they came out with them in 1993. I think I have almost all of them, but I do check eBay every so often to make sure. And if I happen to find one that’s not already in my collection, somehow it finds its way to our house. Can’t imagine how that happens….
And yes, when Barbie was first introduced, as a toy in 1962, I certainly got one. Then another, and, well, the rest is history. Thus my Barbie fascination. I even added several collector Barbie dolls that I really liked, which are displayed in my curio cabinet.
I’d envisioned a skinny white tree like we have for the flamingos, but Ben quickly decided if we were going to put it in the master bedroom, and really there was no other place for one, it needed to be a regular full sized tree.
Who was I to argue?
So we found one, brought it home, and set it up. That year as I started decorating our family room tree, I pulled out all the Barbie ornaments to put on the new tree. I started to count them, but I saved that for another time. (Actually I lost count.)
Over the years I’ve also collected the little shoes from the “Just the Right Shoe” series, and had dozens of them around the house, so I made them into ornaments to add to the new tree, using hot glue and ribbon. Perfect!
The ironic thing about my little shoe collection? I don’t like shoes. I don’t like buying them. I’m not fond of wearing them. Give me boots or sandals (in the summer, of course), and I’m ok. Shoes just aren’t my thing. However, that’s another story.
Even adding all the shoes, the tree wasn’t quite full enough yet, even for its first year, so I decided to add some retro style ornaments, along with glitzy things like champagne bottles, pink poodles, pink cars with Christmas trees on them, and similar goodies, as you can see from the pictures! It turned out great! And if you look carefully, there are even a couple of Ken ornaments.
It’s still a work in progress, but it really looks wonderful. Unfortunately it’s not in a public area of the house. Getting to see it in person is by invitation only.
Until I find a place to put it downstairs.
There are still a few more little tree surprises, though. So be sure to read the final installment of “Each Tree has a Story, Part 10,” to be published on December 23.