down memory lane

We don't do themes at our house. At least not for Christmas. The one year we tried a "color" theme, the kids were very disappointed and wanted their old ornaments back the next year. So our tree is basically a hodge podge of memories.

I suppose I should also mention that I don't particularly like decorating for Christmas. Sometimes it seems like an awful lot of work for such a short time. (Of course, once it's all finished, I love it. Until it's time to put it all away again.)

What makes putting ornaments on the tree bearable (I make it sound like it's a chore like picking mushy walnuts up out of the yard on a cold fall day.) is recalling the memory behind each ornament. Of course, we have the regular standard ornaments but some ornaments have especially sweet memories attached to them.

This was our first ornament as a dating/engaged couple in 1986. Eons ago.

This was the ornament we got to celebrate our 1st Christmas as a married couple. (I had a thing for precious moments at the time.)We were so excited to celebrate our first Christmas that we put our little tree up in October and covered it with so many ornaments that it kind of leaned to one side. But it was cute. This was one of the many ornaments that we added to our collection that year.The next Christmas, our baby girl was 6 months old and of course she had to have a "first" Christmas ornament.

Four years later, we welcomed a little boy to our house and this was his special ornament. (He also has a turtle ornament and his very first Sunday School ornament that still hang on our tree.)

So tell me, what memories do your Christmas ornaments hold?