A Few of My Favorites

Growing up, my mom's (our) Christmas tree was a "designer" tree. That is the term that I always used. All it meant was that all the decorations were similar and the same color. It was a very, very pretty tree. With a big bow on top.

I just knew that I was going to have that kind of Christmas tree. Even in college and when I was single in my own apartment, I had decorations that were all the same. With tiny bows tied to the ends of the branches. A big bow at the top. Coordinating balls.

But then I got married. And we were given a few "Our First Christmas Together" ornaments. Those ornaments meant something to us. We also bought one on our honeymoon, and one that "looked like" our wedding.

And so it started. We have a beautiful Christmas tree with a mixture of red and green balls plus ornaments with sentimental value. I love putting them on the tree each year because I know exactly where each one came from. And why we have them.

I sound like a Hallmark commercial, I know. But here are a few of my faves:

Our star is hand-made from a friend that has since moved to Seattle. It is one of a kind. We went several years without a star because I couldn't find one that I really liked. She made us this one, and I loved it the first time I saw it. It is a large wood star (in gold/yellow) with two smaller stars in the middle (a white one and then a silver on top) with silver dots going around the white star. Then each of small white stars around the top have a silver star-center, and they are attached with curling copper wire.

This is our "wedding" ball. It says "Christmas 2002" which was our first married Christmas. The great thing about this ornament is that it is the colors of our wedding--light sage green, silver, and white! I was so excited when I found it--AT K-MART!!!!!!!

We got this mermaid ornament on our honeymoon. We took a cruise, and one of our stops was Grand Cayman--we went to Sting Ray City to swim with sting rays...that is why she's holding a ray.

I have found an ornament for each of Reagan's Christmasses. I try to find one that goes with something he has done or loved over the previous year. Maybe he'll want these when he grows up...be he IS a boy, and I'm not expecting him to care all that much. But I do. :)

This picture didn't take very well. But it is a blue baby bib with "Baby's First Christmas" on it.

Year 2. His first word was "dog", and I found this beautiful hand painted glass ornament. You can't really see because of the bow, but there are even cute little ears.

This one is a stretch, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. It turned out ok because this is Reagan's favorite ornament of his. For most of the previous year Reagan was attached to the Little People chicken from the farm. He even named it Tallulah. Tallulah went everywhere with him. It fit so perfectly in his hand, too. So here is a chicken for our tree.

The year 2007 started his love of cars and the movie Cars. This ornament is actually a Hot Wheels, but Reagan loves the cool fire coming out of it!

Lately Reagan has really enjoyed making and decorating sugar cookies. I stumbled on this one that is supposed to be a decorated cookie (I don't know if you can see the cookie part). It is a really pretty ornament.

There are so many other ornaments that mean things to us. We each have a football ornament--David has a blue Dallas Cowboys one and I have an Aggie one. I always put the two together. We have 2 bones for Abby and Elton and a white cat for Mav (who is black, by the way). We have some from other vacations. One from New York~~we used to go alot, and we bought one while we were there right after 9-11.

There are holes in the decorations, but I am looking forward to filling up those empty spaces with more memories.