What's special about this tree, it is now a collaborative effort, my girls are now old enough that they enjoy decorating it with all of their special ornaments, but they don't clump them all in one spot any more. They usually leave my ornaments for me, but since I was at work while they were decorating they only left a few ball ornaments for me to put on. (I think they don't like them, but they have been on my trees for over 20 years, and they will continue to be.) When my oldest daughter was probably in the first grade I learned something from a friend. She would buy her kids a special ornament every year. One that depicted whatever they were currently involved in, or obsessed with. The plan was, when they grew up they would take these with them so they would already have several ornaments for their first tree. (Truth be told, I'm not looking forward to that day, my poor tree will be bare.) Except for the red and gold balls my tree is adorned with a very ecclectic mix of ornaments. As a child Amanda was into ballet, & cheerleading so we have many ornaments with that theme. Now she has ornaments reflecting college dorm life, photography (her major) and her latest involvement, her sorority. Hannah's ornaments start with her love of Baby Bop (on Barney) to a good run of Barbie ornaments I think 3 or 4, she also has a lolly pop from when she was in the play last year "The Wizard of Oz" where she was one of the "Lolly Pop Guild". We haven't received her ornament for this year yet "Harry Potter", but it has a special place front and center when it does arrive. My other ornaments vary, a lot were gifts, but there are a few from our vacations. Several Disney characters, some from Hawaii, & San Francisco. I even have an ornament that my step-son made when he was very little, it was one of the few christmas decorations my husband already had when we got married. It is made with two jar lids glued together and inside of each lid is a cut out from a christmas card, all around it is silver glitter. I love this ornament, it has been on our trees forever.Monday, December 1, 2008
Christmas 2008
The unveiling of the Gardner Christmas Tree 2008.
What's special about this tree, it is now a collaborative effort, my girls are now old enough that they enjoy decorating it with all of their special ornaments, but they don't clump them all in one spot any more. They usually leave my ornaments for me, but since I was at work while they were decorating they only left a few ball ornaments for me to put on. (I think they don't like them, but they have been on my trees for over 20 years, and they will continue to be.) When my oldest daughter was probably in the first grade I learned something from a friend. She would buy her kids a special ornament every year. One that depicted whatever they were currently involved in, or obsessed with. The plan was, when they grew up they would take these with them so they would already have several ornaments for their first tree. (Truth be told, I'm not looking forward to that day, my poor tree will be bare.) Except for the red and gold balls my tree is adorned with a very ecclectic mix of ornaments. As a child Amanda was into ballet, & cheerleading so we have many ornaments with that theme. Now she has ornaments reflecting college dorm life, photography (her major) and her latest involvement, her sorority. Hannah's ornaments start with her love of Baby Bop (on Barney) to a good run of Barbie ornaments I think 3 or 4, she also has a lolly pop from when she was in the play last year "The Wizard of Oz" where she was one of the "Lolly Pop Guild". We haven't received her ornament for this year yet "Harry Potter", but it has a special place front and center when it does arrive. My other ornaments vary, a lot were gifts, but there are a few from our vacations. Several Disney characters, some from Hawaii, & San Francisco. I even have an ornament that my step-son made when he was very little, it was one of the few christmas decorations my husband already had when we got married. It is made with two jar lids glued together and inside of each lid is a cut out from a christmas card, all around it is silver glitter. I love this ornament, it has been on our trees forever.
What's special about this tree, it is now a collaborative effort, my girls are now old enough that they enjoy decorating it with all of their special ornaments, but they don't clump them all in one spot any more. They usually leave my ornaments for me, but since I was at work while they were decorating they only left a few ball ornaments for me to put on. (I think they don't like them, but they have been on my trees for over 20 years, and they will continue to be.) When my oldest daughter was probably in the first grade I learned something from a friend. She would buy her kids a special ornament every year. One that depicted whatever they were currently involved in, or obsessed with. The plan was, when they grew up they would take these with them so they would already have several ornaments for their first tree. (Truth be told, I'm not looking forward to that day, my poor tree will be bare.) Except for the red and gold balls my tree is adorned with a very ecclectic mix of ornaments. As a child Amanda was into ballet, & cheerleading so we have many ornaments with that theme. Now she has ornaments reflecting college dorm life, photography (her major) and her latest involvement, her sorority. Hannah's ornaments start with her love of Baby Bop (on Barney) to a good run of Barbie ornaments I think 3 or 4, she also has a lolly pop from when she was in the play last year "The Wizard of Oz" where she was one of the "Lolly Pop Guild". We haven't received her ornament for this year yet "Harry Potter", but it has a special place front and center when it does arrive. My other ornaments vary, a lot were gifts, but there are a few from our vacations. Several Disney characters, some from Hawaii, & San Francisco. I even have an ornament that my step-son made when he was very little, it was one of the few christmas decorations my husband already had when we got married. It is made with two jar lids glued together and inside of each lid is a cut out from a christmas card, all around it is silver glitter. I love this ornament, it has been on our trees forever.
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2 comments:
Your daughter sent me your link as part of a swap on Swap-Bot.
We, too, have given our kids many ornaments over the years. This year's ornaments are saxophones for my own kids (found them at the annual Festival of the Trees gift store), and a drum for our exchange student (can you guess what instruments they each play?). My daughter leaves for Navy boot camp in January, but when she's settled into her own longer term home (after boot camp and 18 months at the Defense Language Institute), I'm sure I'll be packing up her ornaments for her own tree!
Oh, I meant to tell you about my favorite ornaments. When my son was about 1-1/2 years old and my daughter 5-1/2, I cut mitten shapes out of muslin, zig-zag stitched in red thread around the outside of a muslin-batting-muslin "sandwich" with a ribbon loop at the top, then had the kids dip their hands in green shimmery fabric paint and put their hand print on the "mittens." It's a great memory of when they were little. A couple of years ago, I sewed about 50 of them and dipped many little hands at my office's kids' Christmas party. Everyone who brought their kid to that party and had them participate in my craft loves their "mitten" ornament!
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