Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Every ornament tells a story

I LOVE getting things ready for holidays. Whether it be Christmas or Easter, I love decorating and all of the good things that comes with it.

And although I love all of the holidays, I love Christmas best of all. I love giving gifts and seeing people's faces light up when they receive something they didn't expect or were really wanting. I love wrapping those gifts, I love huge bows that my nana taught me to make. I love Christmas music and food and cookies ... Are you getting it yet? I LOVE CHRISTMAS.

I've always loved Christmas, but I never realized until this year, how much I really appreciate decorating the tree and all of our ornaments.

This year, as I put the ornaments on one by one, I realized how much meaning every single one had and I decided that it would only be fitting to write about my favorites, so here we go ....


This baby has been on our tree every year since I was four. It was given to me by my God-parents obviously, but I think it holds the most meaning simply because it's been hanging on our tree for almost as long as I can remember.


This isn't an ornament, but it's an ornament box that I see every year, one that held a special ornament I made for my parents when I was in pre-school. Can you spot the gingerbread man?



Nana gave Kyle and I ornaments every single year until we were about 10 and they were all Mickey & Minney. Not sure where she got them but since we no longer have her, little things like these mean a whole lot more


This guy is pretty hard to see, but he's a moose sitting on top of presents. Ornament exchanges were a regular event for my little group of friends in middle school and the moose was one of the ornaments I got from an exchange. I think he's so beautiful. & middle school was so fun for me!


We go to Ocean Isle, NC every single year and enjoy a whole week on the beach with our family. One thing we never miss doing while we're there, is going to St. Nick Nacks in Calabash. "Calabash Style Seafood" is a pretty hot commodity and so while we wait in the inevitable hour or 2 hour line at The Boundary House or our old favorite, Dockside, we shop at St. Nick Nacks which is close by. It's room after room after room of everything from yankee candles, to flip flops, to fudge and about 8 rooms of Christmas decorations. This turtle is an ornament I got last year. Who doesn't need a little beach on their christmas tree?


These guys are also from St. Nick Nack's. Aren't they so fun?


Ok, I'm not sure if I've said this before on the blog, but I really don't like birds. I think they're gross and creepy and YUCK. However, these clip on birdies (which you can find for a high price at places like Anthropology) were my mom's mom's .... so my grandma's .... but I never met her. I still love them though, because they're an heirloom that were on my grandma's tree, on my mom's tree and probably, eventually, on my very own tree.


This dalmation TV that you stick a light into, is the very first ornament I can remember getting that was alllll mine. I picked it out for myself.
I still think it's cute, don't you?


I think I took this picture while my mom was telling the story, whoops. But she said, this ornament was one that Nana gave to her the year after I spent all of Christmas climbing in and out of boxes.


Here's our finished tree!

With everything from ice-sicles to star fish, from birds to dogs and babies to vintage ornaments, our tree is full or stories.

What stories do your Christmas decorations tell?

2 comments:

Brittany said...

My mom gets us an ornament every year! You may have inspired me to actually make a new post.

Nicole said...

LOVE this post! I'm so glad you shared!