Christmas is Coming

Last weekend we started decking the halls at our house. I finally put away all my pumpkins and Halloween decorations. Now, I don't normally leave the Halloween stuff up till AFTER Thanksgiving. This year it was just too crazy with changing jobs and life in general. I simply didn't get to it till last week. We took Alex to see Santa, bought a Christmas tree, built a fire in the fireplace and started decorating.

Let me preface this by saying I LOVE Christmas. I love decorating for it. I love sending and receiving cards (especially ones with letters or notes updating me on people's lives). I love going to church this time of year. The songs, the symbolism, the preparation for the birth of Jesus. I love the how Alex is starting to get it... that if he's really good Santa will bring him presents. When I was little I loved getting presents. Now that I'm older, I have truly discovered the joy of giving.

Starting from the year we were born, my parents bought us Christmas ornaments. We could look at our Christmas tree and trace our path in life, our interests, activities, what was important to us each year based on the ornaments on the tree. I'm not talking just one ornament a year here. At least two ornaments or more each year, every year (3+ ornaments a year x 33 years= hundreds of ornaments). Some were homemade, some are from catalogs, mostly though, they are Hallmark ornaments. After my brother, my sister and I each moved out, we each got GIANT boxes containing our ornaments. So we never had naked Christmas trees. It's actually fun to pull the ornaments out each year and tell the stories behind them, because each one truly has a story! (for those of you already reading this... I hit publish too soon... so I'm finishing this now!!)

I have ornaments I made as a child. Ornaments that say "Daughter," "Sister," "Granddaughter," and now "Mom." I've carried on the tradition with Alex. He has a handful of ornaments as well, but I limit it to two a year from us, because of course, my mom gets him 2 ornaments too.

Here are some ornament close-ups:

This picture shows a penguin I bought for Alex last year, a glass ball hand painted by one of Craig's former co-workesr, a bear on a swing that is mine, a shell ornament we picked up in St. Thomas on our honeymoom, and snowman that was just cute and needed to live on our tree.

This is one of my favorites! I took French for 6+ years, starting with my freshman year of high school. So there are a few Eiffel Towers ornaments on my tree, as well as some "Pere Noel" ornaments.

This one is also special... a gift the year we found out we were pregnant with Alex. If you notice the crayola ornament too, I collect the series of Crayola ornaments from Hallmark.

Oh heck, they're all special! This was another gift for Craig and I. My mom and I have this long running thing with Pink Flamingoes. It's a long story.

I'm quite certain this was my first ornament, though it might have been my second. It's a glass Santa covered in that sugar-type glitter. This one has to hang on an interior branch, so if it slips it might be cushioned from falling. The baseball is from Craig's trip to cover Bob Uecker's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. This one got misplaced one year... put in the wrong box. We thought we threw it out with the tree. It resurfaced last year.

This Bob the Builder is Alex's. Bob is still a favorite of his.
As you can see every ornament has a story. There are hundreds of ornaments on my tree right now and each one has a story. I have a box and a half of ornaments that didn't even make it on the tree this year that also have stories. Christmas is all about memories... new and old. I think that's why it always make me feel so warm.