So I thought I'd help myself get in the Christmas spirit by posting daily some of my absolute favorite ornaments. While I appreciate some people's monochromatic schemes on their trees, that will never be me. Last night as I struggled over the decision to keep an ornament that I bought or give it as a gift, Mike said, "Well the tree is kind of full." Oh, poor Mike. He has no idea just how many can fit.

You see, decorating the Christmas tree has always been a big deal to our family. Whether it was the days of charlie brown trees that my logger father would never live down, or the days of perfect pine very carefully picked out by my mom, the time to decorate it was always a happy one. Somehow down the road we ended up making it a tradition to invite my aunt over to help and we'd stick in the the movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" while we decorated. The sound of my dad laughing hysterically every single year as Clark Grislwold went flying down the hill on his greased up saucer passes through my mind often. We would unwrap each ornament and as we hung it, discuss where it came from, who gave it to us, or make fun of whoever's baby picture was on it (we're sentimental like that). I look forward to passing on to my future family the same enjoyment of the Christmas tree.



These ornaments are some of my favorite. The N was given to me by my friend Holly, a couple years ago. I fell in love with it when I opened it up. Later, I found the same ornaments in my favorite store and bought the M for Mike as the first ornament I gave him. How happy I was to see that the M was in a more masculine color. It was meant to be!