Bottle Brush Tree Mantle

My love for decorating for the holidays comes from my mother. Every year she would adorn our home with the trinkets and baubles that represented each celebration. Both she and my father knew how to be creative on a shoe string budget. It's been many years since my father passed but I think of him nearly every time I build something just as I think of my mom whenever I decorate, expecially at Christmas.
  
Although my mother is still alive she is suffering from the affects of Alzheimer's. The other day as I decorated her home for Christmas I reminded her of Christmases past and of the work she would go to to make our home festive and beautiful. I am so very grateful for her and the effort she made to create wonderful memories of home. 
  Some of the decorations I remember from my childhood are brass reindeer and bottle brush trees. Because those things are associated with happy memories I have managed to collect a few along the years.
This year I thought it fitting to decorate our family room mantle with the symbols from my youth and share with my children the stories of years gone by.

Linked to: The Lettered Cottage