12-2/12-4

Boy- last week was a busy week! Buckle up…we’re a wild bunch….

So this is my family. We’re starting off in Jenna’s room. She’s six. She loves her candy themed tree with colored lights. The man, here in the blue shirt, is my ex husband. She loves when Chuck comes over to help her decorate and my oldest, Cameron (my son with my ex) loves that we can all do family activities together. Me too…sometimes…but boy do we get on each others nerves. We do it for the kids though.

You see all the pretty candy themed ornaments here. Well, Chuck loves giving her ornaments that don’t match. His additions include a pink high heel, a flamingo, a princess crown and my favorite, a florescent pink hippo with pink feathers! She loves them all and especially loves when he brings her new ornaments. She’s even asked that they don’t match the theme. She thinks it’s funny when he does stuff to aggravate me but this little missy sure does know what she wants…and if it has feathers, sequins or anything flashy and bright…she wants it.

Every year Chuck has helped her decorate the tree, he always steps back and lets John (Jenna’s daddy) help her put the star on top. That’s her favorite part. I think it’s John’s favorite too. Although he does like to watch from the doorway. He’s not a hands on kind of guy, with decorating, unless he sees me doing it by myself.

Moving on to my son’s room, he has a tree too. This room is a work in progress. He’s moving back to the upstairs room, so it’s in transition and not a real room yet. This is a sentimental tree, in memory or in honor of my brother Blake. He died several years ago and the first Christmas without him, my mom decorated the whole house in deer and hunters theme, since he loved to hunt.

That first year, my mom hosted a small, Christmas dinner for our immediate family and his closest friends. Each of his friends brought an ornament to hang on the tree that was hunters theme or reminded them of Blake. It was a touching time with many tears and when Christmas was over, my mom packed up the ornaments and vowed she never wanted to see them again. So me and Cameron inherited them and through my divorce and many years feeling lonely, this tree has brought me comfort when i put it up. Kind of like cheap therapy. This year was hard pulling everything out though. So much time has passed, it feels like I don’t even know him anymore. But at times, as if he hasn’t left. My son has some of his annoying mannerisms and loves to aggravated Jenna, just the way my brother aggravated me, so I know he’s still here with us.

My brother’s favorite dog was a chocolate lab so I love when I pull this ornament out of the bin. It makes me smile everytime.

These ornaments are pictures of my brother. Bottom right is him and Cameron.

The top left was the last picture I took of him.

I found a bed spread my mammaw gave me and threw that on the bed for now. I kind of like it.

In the foyer, we have the kids tree. This is all the school decorated ornaments. This is my favorite tree. Also, this is my mom (known as Miranda from Devil Wears Prada…attitude and all) She’s normally just an observer but Jenna guilted her into helping. She helped with this tree since it was already up and lit.

I have more pictures from our weekend but they won’t load for some reason. These are all unedited cell phone pics so maybe that’s why. Y’all bare with me. I’m trying to figure out the kinks, as I go.

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Christy