Christmas ornaments around the world: US Edition

As a companion to yesterday’s post on international Christmas ornaments, here are some items from our tree that hail from around the United States:

(Left photo)  The most instantly-recognizable symbol of St. Louis, Missouri is the soaring Gateway Arch, designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen. The city calls itself the “Gateway to the West,” a major jumping-off point for intrepid pioneers.  There’s also the excellent Museum of Westward Expansion underground beneath the Arch.

(Right photo)   Our Cinderella’s Castle ornament from Walt Disney World has been dropped a few times, so some of the little turrets are suspiciously short or missing, but it still brings back memories of visits to the Magic Kingdom when we lived in north central Florida.

(Left photo)  The Powell & Hyde cable car line in San Francisco, California.

(Right photo) The wintry charms of a little seaside town in Maine – Castine – where some of our friends used to live and where we used to visit regularly when we lived in Rhode Island.

(Left photo) This is from our trip to Virginia’s Historic Triangle of Jamestown, Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg.

(Right photo) Some holiday greetings from my home state of Texas, with a nice gifty boot and some springtime bluebonnets to get us through the short but exciting Texas winters.

Thanks for joining me in a trip around my Christmas tree!  Happy Holidays to all of my readers….