Sunday, November 30, 2008

A Few of My Favorite Things

One of the things that I love about Christmas is reminiscing about the tree ornaments. I am pretty nostalgic, so having an old shabby ornament with a great memory attached to it is better than having a shimmery, new, pretty one. I thought I would do a post about some of my favorite ornaments on our tree. Why don't you all do the same? Which ones are your favorites and why? What is the oldest ornament on your tree and how long have you had it?



This is an ornament that I painted and then decoupaged one of our wedding photos on. I made these for all of our parents and grandparents the year we got married.


I think Adaryll's Dad (Papa-G) got us this one. A few years ago we had it signed on the back by Montae Raegor when he was doing a book reading for kids at a Starbucks in Indiana. (he played for TTU and went on to play for the Colts)


This is one of the 2 oldest ornaments on our tree. It was made by my childhood friend, Kim, in 1983. She gave one to each of us in our Brownie Troop that year.


We got this one for Elias his first Christmas. I grew up playing with trucks, not dolls, so I'm not sure if this was more for him or for me. :)


Elias made this one last year in his Fours-Plus class at TPCA.


Elias made the baby Jesus on the cross in Sunday school at TPCC a couple of years ago. The sax was given to Adaryll by my Dad and Karen a few years ago. Elena tried to play the sax before she hung it on the tree Saturday.


This is the best "Baby's First Christmas" ornament I have ever seen. Someone gave it to Elias for his first Christmas. It is a book with real pages where you fill in who you spent the holiday with, what his favorite things were, etc.


This one is a marshmellow snowman on a Smore. We had 5 families in our neighborhood who we were really close to. We used to sit out in lawn chairs wrapped in blankets and cook smores in our firepits together. So the Millers got us all this ornament to remember those nights together. If anyone wants to come to TX and make smores- we still have the firepit!


This is a hand-painted replica of the chapel at our seminary. I got it at a craft fair we had on campus one year.


This is a little girl carrying a teapot. I got it for Elena her first Christmas since her whole room was decorated in teacups.


I think this might be the oldest ornament on our tree. E.T. came out in 1982, and I am guessing that is when we got this one. I remember hanging it on our tree every year growing up.


I painted this one a few years ago. And now here we are- back in the Lone Star State.

6 comments:

Cathy said...

I'm so going to do this, but we just have to get tree up first. Very cool.

Anonymous said...

This is absolutely my fave part of decorating at Christmas. We are a kitchsy tree family - no matchy-matchy ornaments all in the same color scheme, but a tree full of memories, going back as far as when I was a baby! On our honeymoon, Jim and I started a tradition of buying an ornament everytime we took a trip together as a momento. It is so fun now to unwrap each ornament and remember the trips and events that triggered each ornament - like opening a hundred early Christmas presents! :)

Anonymous said...

i love that there are so many different kinds of ornaments on your tree. that's how it should be. the trees decorated in everything matching don't feel real or homey to me.

jen armstrong said...

i love it!! i think this may be my next post!

Millers said...

We thought of you too when we put up our tree, with the same ornament on ours. There are many memories on it, and I am sure that I have the oldest ones, my grandmother made them. I will try and take pictures later. Great idea on how to share memories.

Jennifer said...

We have the same exact "baby's first christmas book" ornament and the same exact smore's ornament! We'll have to compare Holloway and Elias' books - it will be neat to see if there are any similarities.