oh, christmas tree...

i am late in my posting, and wanted to put up a quick shot of our christmas tree...

it's nothing fancy or trendy or anything anyone would be envious of.  but it is full of memories.

i mentioned in my christmas tree post last year that as kids, is was pretty much our only christmas tradition to get a new hallmark ornament every year.  i have been getting them since i was born and now my tree is filled with the ornaments i personally picked out throughout the years.  i plan on keeping the tradition now that we're married and was excited to pick out our ornament for 2009.

i ended up getting 2.  the first one is for our cute little doggie tess.  2009 is the year when that cute little bundle of fur joined our family.  i know this dog doesn't look exactly like her, but it's close enough.  and now, tess has been added to our tree of memories.

this is the other ornament i chose for the year.  there's some background to it- josh's little brother nate left on his mission this past year in june to washington.  when the boys were younger, they always did a christmas eve program with random christmas songs and skits.  on one of my favorite home videos, nate is singing "i wanna hippopotamus for christmas".  he's like 4 or 5 years old and it's the cutest thing ever.  so, when i saw an ornament that actually plays that song, i knew it was meant to be.  i bought one for us, and also sent one to nate-dog on his mission.  and i'm so happy that he absolutely loved it.