What kind of Christmas Tree are you?

I was looking at my friend Courtney's Blog

 And Then There Was Home

and she had a great post about the ornaments her family has on their tree and what they mean to her and her family.  I thought it was such a great post.  Ornaments are just a fun way to cherish and preserve memories for your family for years to come.  Every year the tree goes up and the ornaments come out and you place those keepsakes on a tree, each one tied to a different story.

I won't lie, I didn't always have such a traditional view of ornaments and Christmas trees.  If you wanted a miss-mash of ornaments for your family that was fine, but I tended to lean towards cookie cutter trees with specific themes and color motifs.  Don't get me wrong, I am still all for a perfect magazine worthy tree.  Recently I saw a tree that I died for, but as I have aged (yes, I have aged) I find myself dreaming of a different kind of tree.  The kind I alluded to above.

Unfortunately, this year Matt and I won't be home on Christmas.  Only being home for a short two weeks in between our travels, I just didn't think that dragging out the tree, hoping the lights work, making it stand straight...yada yada yada, was a good use of our time.  I did however decorate our mantel, so I call it my Christmas Treemantle.  I strung some garland and lights and picked out some of my favorite ornaments so far and put them up.

I like the way it turned out.

Not too festive, but festive enough for us this year.

Matt's Side

My side

This is our first ornament after getting married.  On the back it has the date of our anniversary.

My friend Shannon gave us this ornament the Christmas that we got married.

This bird came from the dollar store, there really isn't anything special about it other than I just really liked it.  I think it looks unique and Christmasy, and it only cost $1 so why not? 

Matt and I are both graduates of the University of Southern Mississippi.  We are proud of the Golden Eagles, even if they can't stop a run...or a pass. 

I bought this ornament to mark our 2nd Christmas being married.

Las Vegas wasn't our first trip together, but this is the only thing we came home with because we certainly didn't have any money left.  So this ornament reminds me that we never need to go back to Las Vegas.

My soldier ornament was given to me by my mom the first time that Matt was deployed.

Those are just a few or the ornaments that we have, the ones that I decided to pull out and put on my "Treemantle" this year.  And finally it got cold enough in Georgia that we could justify having a fire.  

What kind of Christmas tree do you have?  Do you have any special ornaments?

This rubs me the right way

Thanks to One Pretty Thing I found a really cute idea for some Christmas happy's for friends.  I have always heard the saying that "friends are the spice of life", and I believe that.  When I saw the really cute spice rub gift idea I new that it would be a simple and usable gift.  

One the website it was in a jar with a twist top, but I decided put my own spin on it.  I found little glass jars that were the perfect size and I saw it as the perfect opportunity to use some of my chalkboard paint.  I started with the glass jars and painted a little square on the front that could be used to label what was inside.

Once the rub has been used the jar can be washed and labeled to match the new contents

I wrapped them up in some festive tissue paper, stamped a little card, and tied them up with a fresh piece of chalk!

Can't wait to give these out to some friends.

Christmas Spice Rub Recipe

1/3 cup coarse salt

1/4 cup paprika

4 tbsp light brown sugar

2 tbsp dried oregano

2 tbsp dried thyme leaves

2 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

*will season approximately 10 lbs of meat or poultry