O Christmas Tree

One of my very favorite things to do at Christmas time is to decorate the Christmas tree. I like putting up all the other Christmas decorations around the house too, but really I love looking through all the ornaments we’ve collected over the years. Every year my mom gives my brother and me each an ornament, I usually give someone in the family an ornament, and of course other friends and family etc give ornaments as well, so this makes for one giant tree filled with memories and meaning. I decided to take pictures of some of my favorite Christmas ornaments. :-)

 

I think my mom gave this Starbucks coffee cup to me our first year in Kaufman. I liked Starbucks at that time, but I had no idea how many hours I would spend in coffee shops over the next four years.

 

My dad teases my mom every Christmas because of her large quantity of snowman decorations. I should count the number of snowmen we have in our house…there are a lot. Last winter when I was studying abroad I found this snowman with shamrocks on it in a shop in Dublin. Funny how you can make anything Irish by painting a shamrock on it.

When I was four my grandma took my brother and me to Hallmark to pick out ornaments while we were on furlough in Texas. I picked out a crocodile wearing a scarf. I still think its one of the coolest ornaments on the tree. It’s a scarf wearing crocodile, AND when you twist his tail his mouth opens!

 

  

 

My parents love New Mexico, we’ve been there as a family a couple times. I think my mom bought this ornament in Taos the summer before my senior year of high school. If you have never been to New Mexico, you should go on a road trip, last New Years me and my friends drove all the way to New Mexico…basically just to play in the snow….best road trip ever!

 

We have a few very random ornaments, like this little puppy wearing a mask with antlers. His present says “from your secret pal.” Through the years we have also had barnie, barbie, startrek, leggo, coca cola ornaments, ornaments that say things like, “to my favorite granddaughter”, “best grandmother” and things of that nature. My grandma worked at Hallmark for a couple years and after Christmas they would just throw all the ornaments and christmas decorations in the dumpster, so she took boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations, hence all the random but some very cute ornaments.

 

 

 

We live in Texas, We are Texans. nuf said

 

These are two of my favorite ornaments, probably because they are from East Africa. I’m not sure who gave us the Africa ornament. I’m guessing it was one of the missionary wives in East Africa. There was a tradition that every year one missionary woman would give, often make ornaments for all the missionary kids. I got the star ornament when I was in Tanzania with the Giddens five years ago, oh how time flies!

 

Every year a couple from my parents Sunday school class give my parents an ornament from Neiman Marcus, this little shiny gold Chinese man is my favorite.

 

My parents first dog was an Airedale Terrier named Jake. I don’t remember Jake cause I was just a puppy when we had him. I found this Airedale ornament one summer and saved it for months and gave it to my mom.

 

 

Once again, we live in Texas. We are Texans. I think my mom gave these ornaments to us our second Christmas in Kaufman.

 

Just about this exact time last year I was in Bath, England, shopping at a little German Christmas market. They had so many beautiful ornaments and I got a few of these hand painted ones, I’m not sure where they are from, I’d like to imagine somewhere in Eastern Europe, but I don’t really know.

 

Last but not least, I gave this ornament to my Dad six or seven years ago. My dad loves to hunt and loves rustic things, so I knew he needed this ornament. I found it in an Ecuadorian department store, I think that’s another reason I like this ornament so much, A rustic zebra print chair with a deer head mounted on it does not seem very Ecuadorian.