Cherished Ornaments

Without a doubt one of my favorite parts of this season is decorating the Christmas tree as a family.  We all look forward to it so much each year.  Everyone has a favorite ornament that they have to put on the tree themselves each and every year, in just the right spot.  It's hard for Mama to pick a favorite ornament though, I certainly couldn't pick only one.  All of our ornaments have been carefully chosen by us over the years.  Many were handed down from my childhood, and a great deal of them were handmade by friends and family.  Each ornament placed on the tree holds a special memory for me.  I've been trying to photograph each ornament on the tree and upload them to my Flickr account so that we'll always have a record of them.  It's slow going and I still have many many more ornaments to capture.

And each year that number gets just a bit bigger as we choose a new family ornament that represents that year for us.  Sometimes all four of us pick and individual ornament to represent a major event or a memory we don't want to lose for the year.  

This year the family ornament came from a sweet friend of mine.  I have been looking all season for the perfect Nativity set for our home, finally ready to upgrade the girls from the Little People set we've had while they were small.  I simply couldn't find the perfect set this year and when this ornament arrived I nearly cried.  It is perfect for us.  Simple and lovely, yet so meaningful.  I will keep up the search for the perfect Nativity set but this ornament most certainly filled the void this year.  

The girls also chose their new ornaments to represent their lives in 2013.  This is such a fun part of the tradition, they are always so excited and can't wait to find the perfect one.  This year their choices were easily made as to what they wanted to represent, then the hunt was on for the perfect ornament.  

Kait this year chose a little ballerina to be her ornament.  She has wanted one for ages as she has watched Kinsley hang her ballet ornaments on the tree and this year she finally got one of her own.  This first year for her to be in dance has been wonderful for her.  She loves every minute of it and takes it quite seriously as well.  (I didn't even notice until just now that she placed her ornament on the tree without removing the tag.)

This year Kinsley had a bit of a tougher time deciding.  This has been her first year as a Daisy Girl Scout but also she visited Legoland this summer which was a big event for her.  In the end she decided on Girl Scouts and we found the perfect ornament picturing caroling girls.  Two of her favorite things she declared.  

Each year as we place the ornaments on the tree we look fondly at the memories behind each ornament, no doubt this will evoke the same emotions in years to come.