Our Favorite Ornaments

This blog posting is inspired by one particular ornament new to our tree this year.  I look forward to the day our tree is covered with many similar ornaments to be collected through the years.  This particular ornament has the distinction of being the first of it's kind, a child's self-made-from-scrap-material home-made ornament.  The ornament at left is Drew's own handy work made with his favorite art implement...scissors.  If you haven't figured it out yet, it's a snow man.

We all have our favorites, and all the ornaments on our tree have special meaning because they were made by and/or depict someone special, or we obtained it during a special moment in our lives such as a fun trip.  Below are a few of our favorites.

Our tree this year is very lovely, but modest in stature.  When we pulled up to the Christmas tree lot, Mom set the rule that we all had to agree on which one of the trees at the lot was ours, even Ollie.  Drew at once demanded that he wanted a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.  I know most people say that, but usually they mean it metaphorically.  Drew meant it literally.  On several occasions, he picked up a dinky broken branch and asked, "how 'bout this one," and I believe he was serious.  Every option given to Ollie, he promptly vetoed with a short "no".  I'm still not exactly sure what he was looking for in a tree.  In the end, we did get a consensus, mostly I think because Ollie lost interest and I vetoed Ollie's "no", and Drew allowed himself to be persuaded into a slightly larger, but still "Charlie Brownish" tree, if not more metaphorically speaking.

Ollies favorite.  It hangs low on the
tree so he can see it and take it off
and rehang it as he pleases.

This is a hand-panted seashell.
We got it on our  honeymoon
in the Bahamas

One of Mike's favorites.  We road our bikes from the
beach to a small shop in Seaside, Florida.  

One of Elizabeth's favorites.  We got it at a street
art fest in downtown Charleston, South Carolina

Not sure exactly where this one came from (we can't always
 remember), though I know we were someplace really cool,
maybe New Years Eve in Ashville, North Carolina.

This is an easy one to remember.  Our babymoon at Estes
Park, Colorado.  Elizabeth was pregnant with Drew.
It's an elk in case you can't see it clearly.