Christmas Eve

Our tree is decorated... ready and waiting for the grandsons to arrive

(and their Mom & Dad too... wink!)

We've always had candles on our tree (that German heritage), 

and this year added red wooden beads and curly raffia.

Like many of your homes...

Every ornament on our tree has "a story"...

Above... ornaments our grandsons made.

The snowman is from our Vermont

"Kingdom Kraft" business days...

The pewter lamb from Danforth Pewters.

This snowman ornie was from our oldest daughter

and has become a favorite...

We made this wedding couple for our first tree...

Up in Amherst, Wisconsin... forty two years ago.

A Vermont handcrafter created this...

(it hangs next to a red bag full of coal!)

Another from our first Christmas...

filled with dried wildflowers we found

along the roadside in Amherst...

Our German "Putz" collection... now fills a wooden cabinet

during Christmas.  When we lived in Vermont, we would

visit the homes of others friends who also put up a putz...

The figures tell the "life of Christ" story... not just the Nativity.

Out fireplace mantle this year... (fake greens... Tsk! Tsk!)

Found this St. Nick at a thrift shop ($3.) in Vermont a few years ago...

He's  a little "grumpy"... but we love him!

Love, love, love the over-sized ears on this folk art angel!

And then our "sepia photo finish" tree...

Four generations of family photos that I processed

years ago with a "sepia" finish...

Grandma Cook (Koch)... our parents, our siblings, our children.

(Yup... that's our wedding photo and our daughter's above it!)

Three generations of "Fischer" girls... 

Grandma Lucille, Katie and our daughter, Naomi.

A flood of memories... 

And then there are the hand-carved wooden Saint Nicks...

made by Vermont artisans, the McAlister family

We're wishing you a Merry Christmas... Daryle & Katie