We’ve been admiring this beautiful Frazier Fir, we recently bought from Calvary Children’s Home, with its shining whitelights, for a week now. Though it is already festive, I guess it is time to place some ornaments on its boughs. As we complete the decorating of our 2015 tree, as always, memories come flooding in, one-by-one as we hang particular ornaments on the Christmas tree. What memories are on your tree? I feel sure you have some tender, heart-felt ones of your own and I hope this post will encourage you to take some time to reflect on them as you deck the halls in your home.

Some may be breakable, while some may be made of paper. Some may be handmade, while some were found at Hallmark.  Many were picked up and personalized year after year and are now on our grown children’s trees. All represent precious moments and memories that will stay with us forever.

I’ve selected a few to share with you.

 

In 1982, Grant Lovelace. a fifth grader in my class in 1982, gave this PAGE ball to me. I can still see his excited face as he watched me unwrap his gift engraved with my new last name…a name change from just a couple of months earlier! Walker and Jess now hang this keepsake on their tree.

This one shows Donny and Leah attending a Preschool Angel Breakfast when she was just four. Now she is twenty-seven and married.

I’ve always loved putting this slipper on our tree, a gift from a teacher friend of mine at Avondale Elementary. Carol Barrett and I worked together several years before I became pregnant with Leah and moved too far away to continue working with the many friends I had made at Avondale! The slipper celebrates our first-born in 1988. Now the slipper adorns Leah and Scott’s tree.

This tree ornament was a gift from our friends up the street, the B’s, in 1991 when our family was a family of three. Even though I was due in February of the next year, I was great with child when we received this one.

Ornaments are a great way to remember travel adventures from our past.

Remember Grover!?! Poor Grover got his nose bitten off by our golden retriever, Riley, and the children laughed and laughed. Their giggles will echo in my heart forever.

Some ornaments, like these we made when our children were small will remind us of how much our loved ones have grown.

Check out an earlier post with great ideas of homemade gifts. Click here.

Baby Jesus in the manger was one of the countless handmade ornaments the children made at either church or school as they grew.

 

 

And the cool camping tent was a gift from our dear friend, Sara to help us recall the fun time we had camping out on their land that was adjacent to Kennesaw Mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December of 2005, my friend, John gave me this in honor and memory of his wife and my dear friend, Jil who passed away suddenly on August 5, 2005 at the age of 40. She loved collecting these stunning Swarovski keepsake Christmas ornaments. You can read more about Jil by clicking here.

When our children were married in 2014, I took time to separate out ornaments from our collection to enable them to begin to build their own family collection.

Now that both Leah and Walker have homes of their own, a good number of our keepsake ornaments have been passed onto them to enjoy for the years ahead. We hope the stories will continue to be told for generations to come.

 

Click on the following links to read some 2014 Christmas posts which you may have missed:

Christmas Cards

Two Christmas Trees: Remembering Our Mothers

The “W” In Christmas

What memories are on your tree?