Memory Tree

Hello friends~ Just thought I'd jump on here for a few minutes and share some pictures of our Christmas Memory Tree this year. I created our first Memory Tree last year as I was trying to come up with something new and different for our little tree. Since last year I was decorating very vintage-y, I printed off some black and white photo's of family members who are no longer with us as well as old photo's of my mom & dad when they were young. Everyone in my family loved looking at the old photo's and many of the photo's sparked memories and stories shared by my parents and uncle. Now, I'm thinking this is going to be tradition as I enjoy having the old pictures out to enjoy all the time. They make me smile as I think of warm memories of my grandparents, my Oma from Germany and other family members that I'd never even met but wished I could have like my Opa, who was killed in the war when my mom was a child. This year, I'll be adding Hunter to our Memory Tree as he was just as much a part of our family.

This is Oma, my grandmother from Germany. I remember her always smiling and laughing. She was the most jolly person I think I've ever known. She was just a tiny thing, not even five feet tall. She couldn't speak any English at all but we communicated just fine. When she lauged, her whole body shook and tears always came out her eyes. She could make me laugh just by listening to her giggle. Oma came to visit us from her home in Germany only a few times, but when she came she stayed for what seemed like months at a time. The time always went by too quickly.

When I was a little girl, I remember Oma watching Sesame Street with me and even though she couldn't understand what was being said, she'd giggle and laugh through the entire show. Her favorite character was Oscar the Grouch and that year for Christmas my mom gave her an Oscar the Grouch puppet, complete with trash can. Oh how she laughed and laughed when she opened that gift. We all enjoyed so much laughter when she was with us. She would say funny things trying to say them in English and make silly rhymes with made up words. She enjoyed playing cards with us and she would put down a heart and say, "heartz, shmeartz doo-deartz". Crazy, but so memorable. That's my Oma!
This is my Oma and my mother when she was a little girl.

The picture on the left is of me hugging my grandpa when I was a teenager. This was taken on Christmas eve. Little did we all know that this would be our last Christmas with our Grandpa. The pretty young girl on the right is my mom when she was a girl. That was taken at her confirmation.

In the picture to the left, is my aunt, uncle and my dad when they were all young. My dad is the one of the right. In the picture on the bottom left is my great grandmother (my grandpa's mother). My grandmother is in the bottom picture on the right.
Daryl's grandmother is in the picture on the left and another picture of my mom as a young woman. Here's our Memory Tree. Filled with love, laughter, smiles and many, many memories.

I just wanted to add that I would love for anyone to use this idea and make a Memory Tree of their own. It's a wonderful way to share our heritage and memories with family and friends. I'd love to see your Memory Tree, so leave me a post if you make one too.

Here's a couple pictures of our front porch. Just thought I'd include them on this post too.




I also wanted to let you all know how much I enjoy and appreciate reading your comments. They bring sunshine into my days and always make me smile when I think about the kindness of people whom I've never even met before. You make my day brighter by your thoughtfulness and I just wanted to say thanks and send you a big Christmas cyber (((HUG)))! Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your Christmas is filled with many blessings and many happy new memories made. Hugs~ Birgit