Over the weekend, I spent some time with Chase around our Christmas tree (a daily occurrence ever since it went up in our house after Thanksgiving) and had fun explaining some of my favorite ornaments to him even though he probably didn’t understand most of what I was saying. He did, however, pick up on the words, “pig” and “dog” a few times which held his interest and inspired lots of animal noises.
Since Sunday’s little Christmas tree activity with Chase was a little too entertaining for me, I thought it might also make a fun blog post to share in this space during this festive week! I’ve included pictures of a few of my favorite ornaments below with brief stories about why each of them mean something to me and make me smile every time I see them hanging on our tree!
The Story Behind the Ornament
- Wedding Cake Ornament
My grandmother gave this ornament to me and Ryan the year we got married and I love thinking back on such a fun and exciting time in our relationship. I’ve also always loved my grandmother’s gorgeous handwriting and seeing Mimi’s beautiful cursive on this ornament on our Christmas tree every year always makes me smile and miss my grandmother a little more.
- Puffy Paint Ornament
Oh my gosh, this one is kind of embarrassing, but I made this ornament for Ryan when we were dating in college with puffy paint and a whole lot o’ love! It’s pretty horrific looking and would make any Pinterest-perfect person shake their head in shame, but I love this little reminder of the early years of our relationship. The college daysss!
- Watermelon Ornament
This ornament makes me laugh and takes me back to my incredibly sweaty summer pregnancy. I could not stop sweating and I also could not stop eating watermelon. Never in my life have I loved a food more than I loved watermelon when I was pregnant and it was 98 degrees outside. My mom surprised me with a watermelon ornament the year Chase was born and I love this silly reminder of such an exciting (and H-O-T) time in my life.
- Chase’s Hand Print Ornament
It is kind of hard to see the baby hand print in the above photo but my mom helped me wrangle a very fussy 4-month-old baby to make this hand print ornament for Ryan for Christmas last year. When I unwrapped it to hang on the tree this year, I could not believe how small Chase’s hand looked to me! It’s crazy to see how fast my baby boy has grown into a full-blown toddler and I love this reminder of his tiny baby days.
- Great Grandma Ornament
If you happened to read PBF when I announced I was pregnant, you may remember the story of how we told my grandma I was expecting a baby boy. I wrapped up an ornament that said “Great Grandma” on it and Mimi initially thought I was giving her an ornament telling her she was a wonderful grandma. A few seconds later it clicked and I will never, ever forget the way her hands shot up in the air and the shriek that came out of her mouth. It may be my favorite memory of Mimi ever and when my Aunt Laurie gave me Mimi’s ornament back after she passed away last year, I was emotional but now look at the ornament as a wonderful keepsake to such an exciting moment with my grandmother.
- Sadie Ornament
Isn’t this ornament amazing!? My Aunt Laurie sent it to me and Ryan as a Christmas present last year and it absolutely blew us away. The painting of Sadie on the ornament is so well-done and now that Chase is obsessed with all ornaments (he calls them “balls”) and dogs, this ornament is, without a doubt, his current favorite on our tree. Every time we pick him up to look at it, he enthusiastically points at it and says, “Ball! Dah! Woof, woof!” over and over again and it just melts my heart.
- Pig Ornament
When we brought Sadie home to our apartment for the first time when she was just 8 weeks old, we had a fluffy stuffed pig toy waiting for her that quickly became her favorite thing ever. We named it “Pig Pig” (our originality is astounding, I know) and there have since been no less than 10 alternate Pig Pigs in Sadie’s life through her almost nine years with us. Pigs became a silly thing that reminds me and Ryan of our favorite furry lady, so the addition of a couple of pig ornaments on our tree over the past few years is one way we like to represent our little pup on our Christmas tree!
- Garfield Ornament
You guys probably don’t know this, but I was a serious Garfield comic book nerd when I was a little girl. I loved reading Garfield comics and remember flipping through Garfield comic books all the time as a child. Every year for Christmas for a few years, Santa would leave a new Garfield ornament for me in my stocking. Once Ryan and I had our own tree, I selected my favorite from my old collection to display for nostalgia’s sake!
Question of the Day
- What is one of your favorite ornaments on your Christmas tree?
- What ornament means the most to you on your tree?
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watermelon makes so much more sense than me and ice cold asparagus by the pound which did it for me.
Mimi’s excited photo is still on our fridge BTW … whenever I am blue I look at it and cannot stop smiling.
<3 love this!!!
We have a ‘traditional tree’ and a ‘travel tree’. We are a military family and have had the opportunity to live in many places and travel abroad. I get an ornament every trip we go on and now we’ve added our baby boy’s ornaments to it.