My favorite ornaments

Silent Night, Holy Night

From a secret Santa

From a friend

Made by the girls

I was sitting in my living room gazing at our beautiful Christmas tree and admiring the many beautiful ornaments that we have collected over the years. I thought I might share a few of my favorites with you, although it is very difficult to pick out favorites when I love them all. I have given some ornaments to the girls now that they have started lives of their own. I gave them any that they made, or were given to them by relatives and friends. We still have a wealth of ornaments and they all mean something. They have been given to me or Leon; or we have gotten them on our vacations. Very few, if any, ornaments are actually bought from the local department store specifically to obtain decorations for the tree. They all have some meaning. We have always gotten a real tree every year and this may be the last year. It becomes more and more expensive every year (this years tree was $65) and although the process is very special, it is wearing to have to get the tree home and wrestle it into a stand. We have often gone and cut our own, which makes it a bit cheaper, but that too adds to the work, as well. So, next year, we are considering an artificial tree. There is a part of me that is very sad, but I guess it is inevitable.

From our vacation to Gloucester, Massachusetts

A handcarved piece I gave to Leon

Little house that lights up - I just like it