Day 2: 12 Days of Christmas... Postcards From the Road

"Road Trip"!!!

Those are two of my very favorite 

 words...ever.  Unless...

...Unless of course, there is 

a 'longer than 8-hour car ride' involved.
As long as our car ride 

does not exceed 8 hours...

I'm all-in!!

Merry Christmas from my family
to yours!!

This year our family Christmas
card is from our trip to California.

Which brings me to today's Day 2 share:

Day 2 is: A "Family Vacation Christmas Tree!!

Over the summer,
I scoured antique flea markets for
vintage postcards from
all of our beloved vacation and
road trip destinations...
I made copies*** and turned the postcards
into ornaments for our tree!!

Wherever we go...we seem to
come home with an ornament...or three...
a Model-T car from Michigan,
...a sand dollar from the beach 
gift shops of Florida...

 This 'Vacation Tree" is the perfect
way to display all of our fun memories...
Even the memories from 
some of those 8-hour car rides...
...especially those memories!!

Truthfully, I am usually up for

 any travel-related adventure... even if the
car ride is more than I might have bargained for...
I am after-all, the map-reader
and co-pilot who is usually adding
additional stops along the way.

I think the whole "8-hour car riding limit"

came about on a camping-vacation

when we drove to Arkansas

 one summer... July, I recall...

It was a hot July in Arkansas...
(my experience was ....sweltering...)

We went mining for diamonds.
(...not in a cave...but rather,
in a big open field...under the sun.)

You can read all about it here:
Mapping It Out: Arkansas Diamond Mining

I'm pretty sure the month of July...

 every July...in the history of weather...

 in the South, has been hot.

--There's no escaping that humid fact.

Who would plan such a

family vacation??

Me.

I love our family adventures.

Our first "real vacation" happened for us in 2009.

Our youngest was 4 years-old at the time.

Just look at us...so young...

(It truly feels like yesterday...

I can remember it so well...

and I wish

 I had bought a second pair 

of those 

Land's End flip flops...

they were the best pair 

of summer shoes...)

memories...

I promise however, 

 we did in fact, all wear shoes on our vacation...

(although the photo suggests otherwise)

 I see our daughter was keeping track of

her vacation money from grandma...

She was probably thinking about all

 the many-wonderful treasures she could purchase at 

our first pit-stop...

(Some things never change)

We traveled to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and 

then on to Charleston, South Carolina.

This trip was everything to our young family.

See it all little girl...see it all.

That was all it took...

Our family, from that moment on...
we fell under the traveler's spell...
We have a wanderlust 
that cannot be quenched.

Seeking out new adventures,

whenever and wherever we
can squeeze them in.

Soon after our first vacation...
we decided to try flying
with the kids... and they loved it.
Flying added a new level of excitement,
it made getting the vacation
started that much faster... and more fun!!

Soon we were visiting city after city, historic monuments...
  towns...both large and small, museums, out-of-the way hamlets
and tucked-away treasures...

If there was something to see...we wanted to see it!!

The Louisville Slugger Museum...
We love Louisville... a great city.

Baseball magic...  The future glimpsing the past....

Our Nation's Capitol...

Pennsylvania...

Visiting Chicago and Wrigley Field.

Cape May, New Jersey... one of our favorite spots.

Sunny Florida...

Always a favorite...The Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.

Oh Nashville, Tennessee...How we love you....

Yosemite... breathtakingly beautiful....

 I'm sure you're ready to see the how-to.
With vacation photos... a little goes a long way... I get it...
So why not make an entire Christmas tree about family travel... ??
My thoughts exactly. ha.

Postcard Ornaments: The Overview:

I began with vintage postcards... 

I mostly chose the big block letter postcards.  
I wanted the postcard ornaments
 to make a statement and for the
destinations to be visible.

I chose a few for the iconic image of the postcard...
ex: the Statue of Liberty and the Capitol.

Make color copies.
I had the copies made on medium weight card stock.

Neatly cut out the postcard copies.

I used these wood squares from Michael's' Craft Stores.

They were very inexpensive.

(pictured below)

I suppose you could hang just the copies 

onto the tree... but I wanted my ornaments

to be sturdy...so I decided to glue them to the wood pieces.

I glued each postcard onto the wood...and
because the edges wanted to pop up, I
held the edges in place with clothes pins while they dried.

That was a lot of gluing...
and a little bit of extra work...
But it was so worth it in the end...
(Similar to the planning and packing that
goes into all those
family trips... always worth it in the end.)

Once dry, carefully remove the clothes pins.
I decided I wanted to give these postcard
ornaments a festive edging.  

For some, I attached
red, green and silver chenille stems (pipe-cleaners)
To other postcard ornaments, I glittered the edges.

I used hot glue to attach the chenille stems.

Once the edging was complete, I added hangers to the backs with a dot of hot glue.

So...even if you didn't want to make a vacation tree... 

full of postcard ornaments...

These would make super cute gifts for out-of-town 

family...

 A sweetly-sentimental gift to make 

 even just one destination

 from a cherished family vacation memory.

I don't know what it is about the holidays...

I am certainly sentimental to

 begin with ...and seeing all of

our best loved vacation memories 

have a second life on

 the Christmas tree... 

it just brings it full circle for me.

I love our family...

I love traveling this jopurney with them...

...yes, even when it's longer that 8 hours in an

over-packed car...

...The now, this precious time that we get

 to "be" as a family, it is so very short...

*

 Having the chance to enjoy

our children's childhood

through their eyes and through 

their new experiences...

--it goes by too fast.

I love making lasting memories...

celebrating the every day...but also

finding time to discover new and 

wonderful people and places together.

This 'Family Vacation Tree'

keeps those travel memories alive... and we get to 

love all those adventures one more time...

during the most wonderful time of the year.

Xo. 

Karri

P.S.

I have more tree ideas...

Because... I could never stop with just one idea.

The Santa Photo Tree 

is  all this

and so much more:

Sentimental...Check...(of course)

Pretty....Check

Homemade....Check

100% Do-able...Check. Check. Check.

If you need more Christmas tree

inspiration you can visit the link below.

I'll see you tomorrow for Day 3...

Oh, what could it be????!

For the Santa Photo Tree, click below:

Santa Photo Tree