31 Days | Ornaments

I love Christmas ornaments.  I mean I really love them.  I love putting up my tree and looking at each and every one.  We have a few traditions that include ornaments.
In fact - we get ornaments when we travel.  I know that people get magnets, coffee cups, or t-shirts, but we get Christmas ornaments.  It didn't take long to figure out that it was the perfect souvenir for us.
We have a family tree and Taft has his own tree in his room.  Both have souvenir ornaments.  And each year I get a few new ornaments for the family tree.
But Taft's tree has something else just a wonderful.  Each year, he gets a few new ornaments that relate to what is going on in his life.  Last year, he was a huge fan of SpongeBob (and still is) so he got a SpongeBob ornament.  This year his birthday party was at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, so there is a little alligator going on the tree.  Some years he may get two or three but never over five for the year in this category.  He still gets ornaments from friends and family too and from any trips that we may have taken.

A circus ornament in Taft's tree.  In place of a photo, I put his ticket.

We have also been blessed to get ornaments from my Mother-in-Law.  Some of those belonged to her mother, were made by Shane as a child, made by my Father-in-Law, and some from their Christmas tree bought the year my FIL came home from Vietnam.
I have a feeling that as I get older the tree will just get bigger.  But that is ok, because I love the history and stories that it holds.
Do you collect ornaments?  Have any favorites?

This is part of a 31 day series.  Check out the other posts here.  And check out the other bloggers participating in this challenge here.

Christmas Eve

Today we decided to just stay in.  Taft and I worked on the playroom a little and tried to make room for all the new toys that we knew were on their way from the north pole.  So as the afternoon rolled in, we decided to let Taft start opening gifts from grandparents.That is beginning to be a tradition for us. 
Gran got him a train table for his GeoTrax that also came with another train and more track.  I love that the table is in 3 pieces.  We can use it for so many things including playing with blocks. (We are waiting to see if Santa brings those.)

Mawmaw and Pawpaw got him a grill.  Taft is a big fan of cooking in general and loves to watch Shane on the grill.  This one is as close to ours as you can get and even has a rotisserie attachment.  It makes noise and sounds like Taft is cooking away.  I can see that he is going to cook me a alot of hot dogs.

Another tradition is to get some new ornaments for Christmas.  Here are the ones that Taft got this year.
A big giraffe.  This one is special since he went to the zoo for the first time on his birthday.  He also got to feed the giraffes.

A circus tent.  We also went to the circus for the first time this year.  Instead of a picture, I put his ticket in the little slot.

A circle cut from his first live tree.  I got his idea off Pinterest and knew we had to do it.  I added a ribbon and a little tag with the year. 

A recordable wish ornament.  Gran sent Taft this ornament and it is special since this is the first year that Taft really made a list for Santa and it is great to record a little memory of that.

And we got a new family ornament from Gran.  A silver star.

And Taft made us a new ornament this year too.  He made a bell at school.  It is my favorite this year.

After opening a few gifts, we went to Central Park for the Festival of Lights.  Different businesses and clubs in town donate a light display to go around the lake.  Taft really liked it since you get to walk and see the lights up close. 

Because he is 3.

And after coming home and having dinner, we went outside to leave Reindeer Food for Santa's reindeer to have a little snack while he is putting out Taft's gifts.

And finally, before bed, Taft made some "circle" cookies with sprinkles for Santa.



Taft's Creations

Somehow, I forgot to blog about the two Christmas ornaments that Taft made for me this year.  So - this will be the last post about Christmas.  He made both of them at Preschool and they were sent home on the Thursday before Christmas.  Each time that he sees them on the tree, he points and says, "I did it!!".

The first one his his cute little Santa.  On the back it has a gift tag that says, "To: Mommy, From: Taft".  It is pretty big for an ornament, but I know it will stay on out tree for many years.

The second is a plastic Christmas ball.  They had the kids dip their hands in white paint and then hold the ball.  Each fingertip is a little snowman.  I love them both.

December Daily - Day 10

Today I worked on some ornaments to give to my neighbors girls. The three girls are adorable and Taft and I are having them over for lunch on the 21st. I have made them "formal" invitations. Keep in mind they are all under 8 years all. It should be fun. Lunch and cookies to decorate. Just a little winter fun.

Here are the ornaments:

Cate is in green and so is the shimmer ribbon but it doesn't photo well.

I also started to work on the list of addresses for Christmas cards. I figure if I have all the address together it will be that much easier to get them all out in the mail. We are taking pictures this Sunday and I will order them that night. Hopefully they will be in the mail by Tuesday at least. I am not posting a photo of the list on here even though it will be used in my album. The photo makes it where you can see the peoples addresses and it wouldn't be right to post those. ;0

Shane's Christmas Tree

Today I finally got to work on Shane's manroom tree. We put it up last year but I never got a topper or skirt for it and when I put it all together this year - well, it looked pretty sad.
Taft and I took a little trip out to do some shopping and found a blue tree skirt and some white ribbon with blue snowflakes. Shane's tree just doesn't have as many ornaments on it as the other trees in the house. I picked up some blue balls and decided to make him some Florida ornaments to use as fillers. (I guess with the SEC loss today I could have picked a better day). Anyway - I added blue polka dot ribbon, orange ribbon, and some cute little white ribbon with footballs on it. I really like how it turned out and it looks so cute in his manroom with all the lights on.

Show Us Your Life - Christmas Trees

It's Friday again, and Kelly's Kornor is doing another blog hop today. Today's theme is Christmas tree's. Be sure to check it out to hop around and see lots of different tree ideas. How perfect! I was thinking that it would also be the theme of my December Daily for today so it works out great!
Last year, I put up two full size trees but I decided it was a little much with a crazy, busy, 18 month old in the house. One of those trees was in the formal living area that we never use and we have it gated off from Taft at the moment also. No need for a tree there.

Here is our family room tree. It is a 9 foot skinny tree and I love it! It looks nice and doesn't take up a lot of room.We collect ornaments from traveling and they are some of my favorites. Like a mini Carmel Mission from our trip to California.And an alpaca from the Alpaca Farm on the San Juan Islands in Washington State.

I love my little mini pre-lit trees in the kitchen breakfast area. I got them a few years ago at Big Lots and the set of 3 was $19. I couldn't pass that up.
Mini trees on the fridge with some of the reindeer collection that I have started. My sis-in-law collects snowmen and my sister collects nutcrackers. At least we are all different.The bar tree.
Taft's little tree with all his many ornaments from his first Christmas. He got more ornaments than I could imagine from friends and family last year. We plan on adding to the collection even more this year. I also plan on checking the Hobby Lobby 75% off after Christmas tree sale to get him a bigger nicer tree for next year. He will need it!

My poor husband also has a tree like Taft's that goes in his manroom. It has ornaments that are all sports and fishing related. I have yet to get that tree up. Maybe today while Taft is taking a nap would be a good time.

Can't wait to see every ones trees!

Taft's Tree

I have gotten a few requests to see Taft's finished tree and not just selected ornaments. I finally took a photo this morning. I did get the ribbon on top and the John Deere tree skirt that he wanted. Also I took a few photos of the other trees and decided to post them also. Shane and I put all the ornaments that we collect on the family tree. The formal room tree hopefully one day will be a family tree also when we collect enough ornaments. His manroom tree is for him to collect golf, sports themed, and fishing ornaments.

The family tree

The bar tree
The trees on the fridge

Shane's manroom tree. Maybe next year I will get to a ribbon and skirt.

The formal living room tree.

Taft's Christmas Tree

On Thursday, Taft came home from Christmas shopping to find a package at the front door. I sat him in his highchair so that he could help open it and see what he had been sent from Uncle Scott and Aunt Teresa. Inside we found an ornament for his tree. He seemed to really like the box and would cry if I tried to take it from him. He just loved playing with string on the box.
Over the years, Shane's sister-in-law Teresa has had a Christmas Tree in each of her children's bedrooms where they collect new ornaments each year from the family. I always thought that it was a great idea and hoped that I would be able to have the same tradition with my child one day. The first tree that Shane and I put up was Taft's. We just wanted to say thank you to all the family that sent him ornaments this year to make his first Christmas Tree great.

A rattle from Gran
Oscar from Mawmaw Geneva
Little fireman from Mawmaw and Pawpaw
A John Deere tractor from Kristi, Justin, Travis, and Mallory

A firetruck from Gran

A sweet angel from Scott, Teresa, Izzy, and Evan