ornaments.

when i was a wee lass, my family always made a big deal of decorating our christmas tree. we would put on holiday tunes, drink hot chocolate, and put all the ornaments on the tree, one by one. my mom always had a story for every ornament. and yes, while i heard the same story every year, i wouldn't put an ornament on the tree until i had heard about where it came from or where it represented. what fun is it to just hang sparkly balls on a tree in your living room? that sounds nuts. the fun is in reminiscing and celebrating the life you've lived so far and where you will go. or so says i.

this past weekend, we decorated our christmas tree, so i'll share with you some of my favorite ornaments:

this bow is one of a set of ten that go around the christmas tree. they remind me of 'whoville' from the original 'grinch' cartoon, which is like my favorite (one of the many) christmas tradition.

between high school and college, i took a year off to save money and worked close to full time at starbucks. i blame my current coffee addiction on all those free lattes. this was one of the last things i bought with my employee discount before i left. it reminds me of where i started and how far i've come since then.

duh. 'our first christmas' was from our first christmas as a married couple. when we were decorating the tree, hubby was super cute. he kept moving all the ornaments i put in the front of the tree to clear space to 'properly display this in all of its glory.' because, according to him, without this ornament, there would be no family here, and thus no family christmas tree to decorate.

this ornament means a lot. my last year of undergrad, i volunteered with a stroke rehab group. this was my gift at the christmas party the last month i was there before graduate school started. school got so crazy, i wasn't sure i wanted to stick with my major. volunteering there helped me fall in love with the field i'm going into and made me so sure of the choices i've made. i'm glad to have a reminder of that on my tree each year.

this is our seahorse from hawaii. i love it because a.) it's a seahorse, my second most favorite animal. and 2.) it's from hawaii which was the first vacation (besides the honeymoon) we went on together. also, hawaii is fab.

vintage rudolph is awesome. love him. also, my mom has the same ornament on her tree so even though we live two hours away, we can look at the same ornament. awwww.

in college, i worked as an aide for a little girl with a development disability. she was the cutest little thing. her family was amazing and her mom is such an inspiration to how i want to be as a wife, mother, and Christian woman in this world. before i left for grad school, her family gave me this. i love seeing it and being reminded there are decent people in this world worth looking up to. i hope that i was an inspiration for their little girl as much as they were for me.

what stories does your tree tell?