A Walk down Christmas Memory Lane

I was looking at some of our Christmas decorations last night and I realized many of them are sweet reminders of their givers. Let me show you.

This star was a gift from some church friends.

 I guess I don't know where this one originated but I think  it came to us

from Mike's Mom. It was one that Mike knew from his childhood and that makes it special.

I am really appreciative that it has held up over time

(and that I haven't squished it).

Ben made this one for us.

Wasn't he a cute little guy?

This one is all the more special as Ben is far away

from us this Christmas.

This is one of many hand-painted ones that originated in Harlowton, MT and were

give to us by our friend, Evelyn. She gave us a new one each Christmas we lived there

and she even continued sending them to us for several years after we moved away.

Evelyn is gone from this Earth now but she is not forgotten!

When we moved from Harlowton to Alamogordo, NM we made another friend who

purchased fancy ornaments from Hallmark for us each year. This was one of my favorites.

Her name was Laura and she also has moved on from this life.

Our memories of her make us smile.

Sam also gave us an ornament featuring his own sweet little face.

For the record, that was the year he tried trimming his own hair.

Even so, he was pretty cute!

I really like this rag angel. Our friend, Kim, gave it to us about 15 years ago.

Kim was a young mom who volunteered to babysit Sam when I first went back

to college. She was very sweet and so generous with her time. We went on quite a few excursions

together with our little kids. She was always ready to have some fun!

The last time I talked to Kim she handed the phone to her husband so he

could tell me about the rare disease she had developed, the one that was robbing 

her of her personality and eventually her life.

Well that was mean of me to start out with a happy-go-lucky type of post 

and then to throw the sadness of loss in your face. 

I feel kind of bad that I did that but I wasn't really expecting to take that turn myself! 

Sometimes my posts take on a life of their own.

Even with the sadness of loss, I am so grateful for these and so many others

who have been a part of our lives over the span of many Christmases.

We've been blessed.

Decorating the Tree

It has been a long time since all of our kids were home to decorate the Christmas tree.  The first year Maria went to college I was excited as the time approached for her to come home for the holidays.  My plan was to have the house all Christmasy when she walked in but the boys were adamant that I wait for Maria to help with the decorating.  I thought it was so sweet.

Mike got "John Denver and the Muppets" going with the volume at an exuberant level.  I'd set the tree up the night before, with help from Bode.  The lights were on and it was time to go through the ornaments. 

We have some really lovely ornaments, but you've all seen lovely ornaments before.  I want to show you our most interesting ornament...

This is a guy on a camel made out of pipecleaners.  I don't remember the whole story but our son-in-law, Eric, made this years ago.  I remember that he was new to the family and was noticing we had a lot of handmade ornaments.  He was goofing around and came up with this lovely deal.  I am certain he did not realize we'd think it was so funny we'd use it until the end of time!  The camel doesn't look too camelish anymore, but it makes me smile.  It makes our tree different from that of any other family! 

Does you family have any weird (sorry Eric) ornaments?

...or weird traditions?