Happy New Year wishes for 2012 ~

Wishing family, friends, genea~friends, a happy and healthy New Year! 

Image courtesy of Vintage Holiday Crafts ~

Merry Christmas to you and yours ~

A little Christmas cheer from my home to yours ~

~ Merry Christmas ~ 
~ Frohe Weihnachten ~ 

The Christmas tree that stands so beautiful and tall, adorned with ornaments as old as I am . . . belonged to my beautiful mom (1933~2010).  I was blessed to inherit her family room tree (she always had two artificial trees standing in her home ) and ornaments. At first, it was difficult but as I continued to decorate for the holidays . . . I felt surrounded by her and all Christmas things she loved so much. I have to say, it feels good, and I think now the hard part will be having to take it all down.


I also inherited a few pieces of her Thomas Kinkade Christmas Village collection . . . there are many more pieces to the collection I hope to own someday. It's a beautiful village and each time I look at it . . . I smile and mom warms my heart and I know she is here with our family.

  ~ Happy Holidays and warm Christmas wishes to all of the genea~bloggers and your families . . . to our friends and family  . . . to remembering all of those who have gone before us, keeping our Ancestors close to our hearts ~ and to making many new memories in the New Year for generations to come . May all your wishes come true ~  
                                

  2009  Christmas blog card ~

Advent Calendar ~ Deceased Relatives ~

I have always had a little tree with the cute little burlap bottom for Christmas (purchased at my local craft store) on my kitchen counter for many years. I would adorn this little tree with Christmas cookie cutters and lights. Some of the Christmas shaped cookie cutters once belonged to mom . . . she gave them to me for the kids.  Our cookie cutter tree always makes my kitchen bright and sweet...the kids smile when they see it!  Now, I have two miniature Christmas trees in my kitchen/family room . . . .

~ First Ancestor Tree ~ 

Right after my maternal Uncle Adi passed away in 2004, I came up with the idea to put photos on tags of all my family members who have passed and would not be with us during Christmas. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do yet but I found paper photo tags at my local craft store and thought that they would work for the time being.

Adalbert Haf 1940~2004 and Keith Tiffany 1948~ 1981

I didn't like the size or that "store bought look" at the time but at least I could honor my loved ones on the tree right away.  I had always wanted to make my own tags and last year I had shared the idea with a fellow blogger . . . so in 2010 I made my own. Tammy, over at Rosie Cotton  liked the idea then, so in 2010, she contacted me asking if I had done them and to check hers out.   Tammy's came out beautiful and she motivated me to get started on mine.

It was hard for me to get motivated that year (2010) because I had to add my beautiful Mom (1933~2010) and my Oma (1913~2010). I just couldn't get myself started but I knew I needed to. I got together with my neighbor Claire . . . she really helped me to push myself and get the creative juices flowing!
Between Claire and Tammy, I finally did get my tags done (2010) and I was very happy with them. So . . . thank you Tammy and Claire for supporting me in a very delicate project. It's still difficult to see my beautiful Mom's tag on that tree . . . she is so very missed . . . all of our Ancestors are very missed.

I decided to place my Ancestor tree under my family tree chart . . . which is very near my kitchen and can be seen from just about every angle.  It's a perfect spot I must say.

Last year, several bloggers made the suggestion to keep my ancestor tree up all year... I am reporting, this year (2011) that I did leave it up all year, each day I would plug in the lights . . . I think it's a great way to keep our loved ones who have passed, close to us all year and especially at Christmas time.

Happy Holidays to you and yours! 

 This post originally created for the

Advent Calendar of Memories in December 2010 ~   

             With the passing of my Mom (1933~2010) and Grandmother (1913~2010)  in 2010,
I have made changes to the original 2010 post . 

Advent Calendar of Memories 2011