The weekend after Thanksgiving is our traditional time of decking the halls for the Christmas and Advent season. One of our traditions is getting each child and grandchild a new ornament each year. When they marry they will take the ornaments to their new home. We now have so many ornaments that we are not able to put them all on the tree! I think I will look for another tree on clearance this year so that we can put up another one....somewhere!
This is always an exciting time, waiting to open the ornaments.
I try to get ornaments reflecting the interests of the children or depicting a family trip. Jordan has developed an interest in homesteading, so his ornament has a cow, chicken and sheep stacked on top of each other. We laughed as we put ornaments from years past on the tree. My mom had found one with a little boy on the computer when Jordan was five years old and we had just gotten a computer and he played some educational games. Now he is on the computer a lot writing his book, editing photos, doing schoolwork or researching homestead information.
It's fun to watch the reactions of the younger children as they are not too concerned with image yet.
Christmas cookie "j" for Jackson!
"a" is for Aaron!
Caedmon gets some help.
What can it be?
Oh, my!
It's Noah's Ark! I think all of the boys have a Noah's Ark ornament.
Watching everyone else open their ornaments. When did he grow up?
A sweet "k" cookie for a sweet Kaelan!
Hanging the ornaments one by one!
Trying to find the perfect spot. I stay out of the way! I unwrap the ornaments and pass them out, but I don't touch the tree. The ornaments generally stay where the children put them.
Yes, I know he needs a haircut!
Hanging a hand knit ornament made by my sweet friend Anna B.
Hanging another unbreakable ornament!
A view from Caedmon's eyes.
A phone booth from England..one from my mom's travels.
Another unbreakable ornament that formerly contained a silver dollar from my mom.
More family traditions and recipes coming up in the next few days.
1 comment:
We have the same tradition. And, this year, we begin giving the boxes of ornaments to the children that are getting married. :)
I have written down lists for each child, with the description of each year's ornaments (and where it came from if I bought it while on a trip or something special). I have the original lists for each child ... dating back 26 years now.
We have had 2 trees crash (which resulted in broken ornaments and mama's tears), so we now tie our tree to a hook in the ceiling. We get the biggest fattest tree that we can get down our stairs to the basement rec. room.
Oh, yes, Mama also has her own small Christmas tree in the living room. It is filled with red and white "country" ornaments. So, I buy myself an ornament or two each year, as well. (Papa gets new ornaments every year, and they go on the "kids" tree.)
Hope your weekend is blessed!
Laurel
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