Family Ornament Stories

The boys and I decorated the Christmas tree last night.  Well, the tree itself has been up for a week with just lights, as we wanted to wait and see how Elijah would respond to it before we got out a whole box of breakable ornaments.

Classic Eli style.  He was very respectful.  And so the ornaments went up last night.

Our tree is one of those over-packed, eclectic trees jam packed with ornaments.  From Waterford crystal to clothespin Wise Men made by yours truly in the 2nd grade, it has something on it for (or from) everyone.

It's overly full, but I like it that way.  Because nearly every ornament on there represents something.  A moment, a memory, a person, a trip.  Having it up for a month each year allows us to have a reason to stop and think about where our lives have taken us.

Here are just a handful of my favorites.

My parents had this made for us to celebrate our engagement.  The top label reads February 14, 1995, which was the day we got engaged, during a study break while Brian was headed to the library.  Can you get any more Northwestern than that?  The pearls you see there are also draped all around our tree.  They were used at our wedding as some of the aisle decor.

To mark our trip to the Rose Bowl (as fans, not players, of course) in 1996.  One of our greatest college memories.  Surrounded by friends, proud as all get out of our school.  Even if we didn't win.

Two good ones here.  On the left is a great retro looking (because it actually is old) piece of fruit that my dad had on his first tree in college.  And the ball is made out of the confetti that was thrown as we left the church after our wedding.

Nope, not pretty.  And probably moldy as I believe this one was made out of food products in about 1981.  But I love kid-made ornaments.  And I love even more that our kids now get a kick out of finding "The snowman Mom made when she was in first grade!  Look, she carved 'M T' in it!  Can you believe how old this is???!!!"

There are a lot like this one.  No, not all beads.  But creative ways we mark a special trip.  These were from when Brian and I went to New Orleans.  Simply some strings of beads we picked up off the street.  There are keychains, figurines, and other non-ornaments that have become ornaments marking different destinations.

And finally, my favorite.  I made it in kindergarten and it is second in placement, only, to the star at the top of the tree.

The Christmas Spider.  Starring yours truly.

Wasn't I cute?

Happy holidays.