Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the third day of the month is "Direction."
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Since the tree is up and all the ornaments are out, I decided to go through and find what my husband and I call "our" ornaments.
The year we got engaged, my MIL and FIL gave me an Old World bride's ornament collection. We still have those ornaments and each of us picks two or three to put up each year. The year we got married, they gave us a beautiful Waterford ornament. So the first ornament I remember buying thinking I would make it a regular tradition was 2009.
Then it looks like I skipped two years. One year I broke my leg and didn't do anything (we didn't even send out cards that year!). I don't know what happened in 2010.
But once we hit 2012, I have been consistent, so let's pretend I was better at being a human being pre-2012. Let's look at the last decade.
We moved to Wisconsin in 2012, so I decided I should probably learn what the state looked like.
We still had a tiny tree 3-foot tree until we moved into our house in 2017, so I was always a bit concerned that ornaments were too big for our tree, so in 2013 I bought the cutest little generic snowman (NOT Frosty) ornament. I have a fondness for all of our ornaments, but this one is high up there in the cuteness factor for me.
In 2014, Walking Dead was appointment television for us. I stopped watching sometime when Negan became too much to handle (so season 7ish), but for a while there, it was all zombies all the time in our house.
*whispers quietly* I didn't do a good job with the 2015 ornament. It was too big for our tree then and it's hard to read and I don't really like it as much as I like some of the others.
In 2017, we bought our house, so I bought a key ornament. You're seeing one side with the date on it, but the other side has our address on it.
In 2018, I bought us maps with where we currently live and where each of us grew up. These aren't as nice looking as I'd hoped, to be honest, but I do love them.
In 2019, we adopted Hannah and I decided that Dr. BB and I were unimportant and just celebrated the girls. I think these ornaments are hilarious and look nothing like either of them. They make me giggle so much. Poor Zelda looks like she has some sort of kitty cross-eyed disorder.
In 2021, I discovered Taskmaster and my obsession still remains. I watched the last episode of the most recent season yesterday and now I have no idea what I will do on Friday mornings!
And this year? This year, as you know, I decided we go in the direction of the teapot. We drink so much tea and this ornament is such a great quality and I'm pleased we have this gorgeous ornament. (I'll wrap it and have Dr. BB open it with his gifts, but I took it out of the box and hung it on the tree for a minute to take this photo. Don't TELL HIM what it is.)
What's your favorite holiday ornament?
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To see what Bestest Friend has to say about direction, go check her out at Too Legit To Quit.
I think you know that we ALL each get a new ornament each year; the plan is that when the kids move out on their own, they'll take their stash with them to start their own collections. So my love of sentimental ornaments knows NO bounds.
ReplyDeleteI love all your ornaments! I think the key is my absolute fav; what a great idea (especially with your address engraved on the other side).
Now everyone knows your name (I have to admit I did feel a little bit special knowing what it was when other's didn't), but I did NOT know Dr. BB's name so that was a fun surprise.
My favourite ornament. That's hard - I love MANY. The year my husband I went to Australia, I bought one of two koala bears wrapped up in a gum tree leaf and gave it to him; that's probably my favourite that I've picked out for someone else. Pre-COVID, our kids school had a holiday bazaar where people donated new or gently used items and then all kids could pick out an item for each family member for Christmas (for $5 total!). My daughter bought me an old fashioned caroler and under the skirt is a little bell. It is adorable and so me. I'll try to remember to take a picture and post it on the blog this year. My daughter must have been 7 or 8 when she gave that to me. She has an incredible knack for reading someone's preferences. nt.
Ha! I wasn't necessarily keeping my husband's name secret, but now you know Super Important information!
DeleteI just love hearing stories about how ornaments came to be. Like, who knew your daughter would be canny enough to know the PERFECT one? That's such a great memory for the rest of your life every time you trim the tree!
My favorites are the teapot, the puzzle pieces, the maps, and the 2020 ornament. It's so cool that you have something unique for each year.
ReplyDeleteOne of my SILs gives all of the cousins ornaments each year and we have a nice collection of robots, cars, planes, and the like.
I like the idea of a personalized ornament for a gift every year. It's thoughtful, but not something you have to really fuss about too much. It's clever and I'm giving everyone in my life who bought a house this year (3! that seems like a lot) a key ornament just because I love it so much and it's easy.
DeleteThose are so lovely! We also get a new ornament yearly (sometimes more than one, to be honest) but I don't think we have any that have all of our names on them! Can you believe it? Yours are all adorable! My favourite ornament...I don't know if I can choose just one! We do have individual snow globes - four of them - that each have names on them, and then two little snowmen that have each boy's name on them, but none with the whole family. I should get on that.
ReplyDeleteYou SHOULD get one with the whole family! You can even include Rex in a lot of the personalized one from Etsy. Maybe it should be a goal for next Christmas.
DeleteThat’s a unique tradition. I guess the Christmas balls that my mother smocked are the best for the tree. But for almost 15 years we have brought out the musical carousel to sit on an end table. It lights, plays music, and goes around and round.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the idea of a carousel. I can only imagine how much your cat likes to watch it.
DeleteI love these, and I'm glad you chose the teapot this year. My favorite ornament right now is probably the one we got in 2020, the year we got Muffin as a kitten. It was made using a photo of her and says "Muffin's First Christmas." It's so adorable and ridiculous. She likes sleeping under the tree, and it's so funny to see her lying there with her ornament hanging right above her.
ReplyDeleteAwwwww...I wish we'd gotten Zelda's first Christmas! Muffin is obviously a very lucky kitty to have her own ornament!
DeleteYou went with the teapot!! So cute! I love this post. So fun to see the different ornaments over the years. Such a wonderful variety and they are all so lovely.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! I liked putting this post together and seeing everything in one spot.
DeleteThe teapot looks so great! I think I need a reminder first about my ornaments (still no tree so the box is still closed, too).
ReplyDeleteI'll expect a detailed post about your favorites!
DeleteThis is such a fun tradition! I have so many favorites from my own ornaments that I could never choose just one favorite. When we get them out, I should take pictures of some of them and talk about why I love each.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a fun post to read all about the memories behind your favorite ornaments!
DeleteI love your tradition of adding a new one each year. I have some really old ones from when I was a kid and those are pretty special to me. (the fact that they've survived for so long) My favorites might be the ones that my girls made when they were in elementary school.
ReplyDeleteI have some really old ones from when my mom was little and I cherish those a lot! It's crazy to think about how many moves and holidays they've lasted.
DeleteWhat a fun tradition! We do not do anything like this but this post makes me think we should start some sort of tradition. My favorite ornaments are the handprints of the boys' that we made at their first Christmas. Will was only 3 weeks old, Paul was almost 10 months old. I love seeing their tiny little handprints! I also have a lot of Paris-themed ornaments and an Eiffel Tower tree topper that I love!
ReplyDeleteI love your ornaments. We don't do anything like this, but I do enjoy pulling the ornaments out of the box and putting them on the tree.
ReplyDeleteI love this tradition! I don't get a yearly ornament but I do try to add a few new ornaments to my tree every year. This year, I tried to be intentional about buying a Christmas ornament when I was on my Niagara Falls vacation and it makes me so happy to look at!
ReplyDeleteI love that you have a tradition on getting an ornament every year. I wish we had started this ... now it seems pointless. I love that you got the tea pot this year!
ReplyDeleteWe do have some fun ornaments... my favorites are a Peloton ornament, a giraffe (we love giraffes), a oversized coffee cup, and a Bob Ross ornament that we randomly got gifted last year (it was part of a holiday giveaway), but it does have significance for us because when Jon and I were in a long distance relationship, he would sometimes call me superlate at night and I'd be having Bob Ross painting shows on in the background LOL
Oh, what a lovely tradition. (Well, with the possible exception of cross-eyed Zelda. OTOH, it would make me laugh out loud each year to get that one out. :>) I'm confundled, though, by the maps. I didn't think you lived right in my neck of the woods, and I have no idea where you DO live, but maybe it's just closer than I hypothesized. Ha. Finally, I think you mentioned, somewhere (maybe in the post that mentioned Hannah's improvements?), that you are on IG? Do you ever connect with people there? I'd love to see more pictures of Hannah.
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