Christmas Tree Party (and a 30-year-old tube of toilet paper)

Dear me, I'm late to Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas Tree Party.

I have a good reason.  Honest.  Hopefully, I can show you next week.

When I look at all the pretty trees out there, I get a little envious.  Envious of their carefully selected themes.  Cohesive colors.  Glamorous ornaments.

At Casa de Tallgrass, we have a hodge podge tree.  It's literally almost 40 years of collected ornaments.  Some were my childhood ornaments and some are from the mister's childhood.  Then there are the ornaments that have been given to us by friends and family.  Mr. Tallgrass and I love to travel, but we aren't big shoppers, so the only thing we really try to find on vacation is an ornament.  Or some kind of trinket that could be fashioned into an ornament, like from a trip to Paris in October...no ornaments to be found anywhere.

And both of us used to be teachers, so we have a lot of ornaments that students made.  Wouldn't they be surprised to hear we still hang them!  We love this one.

I remember the student very well.  She was a junior in my English class and seemed embarrassed when she stayed behind in class to give it to me.  I was touched that she thought of me and it's a rather clever project.  It's made from an egg carton and she carefully threaded yarn through the top and tied the ends off for the poof.

Speaking of clever, this little Santa is always front and center on our tree:

I made this ornament thirty years ago this Christmas.  It's a thirty year old tube of toilet paper!!!

I was in kindergarten and I remember being very nervous that I wouldn't get the eyebrows even.  See, I TOLD you all that I'm a lifetime crafter!  :)

Mr. Tallgrass's childhood ornaments include wooden castles and Make It-Bake It projects.

And I love to tease him with the vintage gems from my earliest Christmases.  Hello 1970s!

I'm linkin' up to