Christmas memories

Hello Ladies~

It's always a bittersweet time of year for me when we are past the Epiphany and it's time to take down the Christmas decorations. Before I do, I wanted to share wonderful Christmas memories.  These memories are made mostly during my marriage of almost 29 years. Prior to this, some memories are great and others not so great. 

I heard once we can recreate our holidays based on what makes us happy rather than what we are "suppose" to do. One lady I know started collecting holiday socks to wear, as a child she was not given that opportunity. Another story I've heard is of wearing fun holiday earrings, whether for Easter, Christmas, or Valentines, even her birthday she had little present earrings. So much fun!

For me, it was choosing to go away from the fancy decorated trees to a simple tree. Filled with memories. My husband and I love nice things, but in our hearts we are simple and love homemade and meaningful things. 

So my tree is a memory tree. My whole family knows this and each year before Christmas we scan the year and ask "What was the one most meaningful thing to us this year?" And then we hunt for an ornament. 

I even have an ornament of a tent camper with a little fire next to the tent. All you see is eyes peeking out from the tent and bear tracks outside. Well, this happened to us 3 years ago! We were tent camping and forgot to lock up the dog food and a bear stole the whole container! We found it off in the woods of the campground, with holes from his teeth and he/she ate the whole bag of dog food. Probably had a belly ache later. 

So we've been able to find all sorts of ornaments that represent the one major event of the year. This year, we wondered? Mask? or kitten? I don't want a mask ornament, so we are still hunting for a Ragdoll kitten ornament. So sweet and soft!

Here are some favorites on my tree:

The hand print of my grandson at 2 years old. They put glue on this hand, dipped in glitter then wrapped it around the little ball.  I love anything with handprints!

This was a magical year for me. I had always wanted to ride the Polar Express since we moved here. One year my husband's son, Evan, came out and graciously paid for all of us to ride the Polar Express. (The local train converts every year and we take a short ride north of town to the North Pole and see real reindeer). This was my ticket. My bell is on the tree too, and if you are wondering, yes we all wore pajamas. I had full footed bunny pj's with my snow boots, long coat, hat and scarf. It was so cold outside!

My sweet husband painted this for me when we were dating. I used to paint ceramics for fun, and he joined in one day. I have always treasured this as this is not something he usually does.

This sweet and simple little bell brings back a host of memories. We were stationed in Okinawa and my husband was gone. My youngest step-daughter was in Kindergarten and the school had a Christmas performance that each student held one of these to ring as they sang Jingle Bells. Oh my goodness were they cute!

1976  was one of the years I was in Brownies and we made these after school with our troop leader.  Such a long time ago, but good memories.

There is poor lighting here, but this is our lovely manger scene. Baby Jesus is hidden from view somewhere near until Christmas. Then the wise men "travel" across my living room from Christmas day to the Epiphany when they arrive at the stable. Yes, we still do this even though the kids are gone. One year the grandchildren helped move them along, that was fun. 

Sometimes I want to replace our stockings I made back in the first year of our marriage, but I always choose not to. The decorations on them were found at the Okinawan dollar store and the felt is what I had on hand. The toe of the girls stockings had a button that when pressed sang Jingle Bells. Memories. 

Thanks for letting me share with you. I hope this may inspire you to think of Creating your own Christmas or holiday memories.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New year,
Dee