Girl Chat - Favorite Ornaments

I actually did a post about this the very first year that I started blogging, but we have since added plenty of new ornaments, two of which I felt needed to be added to my list. 

First up is the ornament commemorating Brian’s and my first Christmas together as a married couple!  We were married in December so we received several Christmas ornaments as wedding gifts, and I loved this one the most because it had a place to put a picture.  – 2007

Since we had a December wedding, we incorporated Christmas decorations into our wedding decorations.  We had two live Christmas trees in the hall where we had our reception and we covered them in these snowflake ornaments.  As our guests were leaving, they were instructed to take one home as their wedding favor.  Every year since our wedding at least one or two friends or family members will tell us that they think of us every year when they decorate their tree.  I love that so much.  On another note, the ornaments were all put together by me.  The snowflakes were ordered online and I had custom ribbon made with our names and the wedding date printed on it and I tediously cut and strung the ribbon through each snowflake... all 200ish of them.  It was a labor of love, but it was so worth it in the end.  We had a lot leftover after the wedding, and those now decorate the tree in our master bedroom every year. – 2007

We have a couple of different ornaments commemorating our babies’ first Christmases, but these clay handprints that we made are by far my favorites.  Jacob and I did this ornament together when he was between four and five months old and his tiny little handprint will be forever treasured. – 2011

Olivia was almost ten months old when we made hers, so her handprint is a bit larger than Jacob’s was when he did his.  It truly amazes me that their hands were once that small.  These ornaments are a great reminder of that and they always bring back a flood of wonderful memories every year when I hang them on the tree.  – 2014

This next ornament was one of mine from my first Christmas in 1982.  It was always my very favorite ornament to hang on the tree each year growing up, too.  I always made sure that it received a prime spot, front and center. – 1982

My dog who we had from 1995 to 2008 had to be put down on December 17, 2008, right before Christmas.  I was devastated to the core.  At the time, he had been my only pet (aside from a cat that we had for a couple of years) and he had been with me from the age of 13 until I was 26 years old.  He slept with me every single night for years until I moved out of my parents’ house and he was always there for me for every event, big and small.  After he passed away, my Momma and Daddy gave this ornament to me with his picture in it so I could have him around at Christmastime forever and always. – 2008

This next ornament is a new addition since I last posted about my favorite Christmas ornaments.  The year after I started my blog my Momma had this ornament made for me.  She was able to get my blog logo printed right on it and it’s in the shape of a heart… just like the heart in my logo!  I was truly touched. – 2016

Finally, my Momma had these ornaments made for both of my brothers and me a few years ago and I just love it because it brings back so many sweet childhood memories.  The ornament is in the shape of a house and it basically encompasses our Christmas traditions as a family.  It has our last name (my maiden name) and our address across the top (which I obvi crossed out for privacy reasons).  And underneath are some very sweet memories… our nicknames – Sissi (me), Boo (my oldest brother, Zach), and Peanut (my youngest brother, Alex), and a couple of things that were special parts of our Christmases growing up.  “Home Alone VHS” is on there because we watched that movie every single Christmas growing up, and it HAD to be the version on VHS because it had all of the commercials and previews that we had memorized from watching it so many times – like “Got a Pepsi for me?  Who knew?” from an old Pepsi commercial and “I’m Zak… I’m Crysta.” from the FernGully: The Last Rainforest movie trailer.  It also says “Wait upstairs” on the ornament because every single Christmas morning my brothers and I would gather at the top of the stairs and wait not-so-patiently for my Mom and Dad to go downstairs and turn all of the Christmas lights on, light a fire, and get the living room all cozy before they would let us come down and see what Santa brought.  The whole time they were getting the room ready they would make comments like, “Oh my gosh, look what Santa brought!” and, “Lindsay is going to love that!” and, “Zach is going to be thrilled!” and, “Alex, you’re not going to believe what Santa brought to you!”  By the time it was FINALLY time for us to go down and see we had all nearly died from suspense.  It was always such a thrill to get to walk down those stairs. – 2015

There are so many more treasures on our tree and I could truly go on and on because I have so many favorites, but for the sake of this post I’ll stop there.  We would love to see your favorite ornaments so be sure to link up with us below!

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*Linking up with Home of Malones for Thoughts for Thursday.