Christmas Ornament Inventory Part 4

Coming to an end of this walk down Christmas Memories Lane, I am left with a bunch of random ornaments, that don't necessarily fit with anything else.  Not to say that these aren't just as special as any others, they just don't categorize as well.  

Up first, one from high school:

It was my senior year.  My great friend and I had been squad leaders in Flag Corps (Marching Band) that fall and had been friends for the three years that we'd been there together.  We'd shared so many great memories including our trip to Disney World the year before.  We both loved Christmas and for whatever reason we decided to decorate our Band Banquet table accordingly.  She brought in a mini tree and decorated it with ornaments that she'd bought for all of us.  She knew I loved the Muppets, so she got this Kermit Ornament for me.

Kermie!

 I am forever wondering where she found it.  It was, after all 1995.  The Muppet Christmas Carol was years before.  The disaster of Muppet Treasure Island was still a few months away.  The Muppets were less than at the height of their popularity.  More of a cult thing at that point.  My cult, a bit, actually.  Definitely still many, many years from their rebirth in successful movies just in time my own children to enjoy.

So, to this day I have no idea where she found that ornament for me.  But I love it still.  I love it because of who gave it to me, and because of the wonderful friendship it represents.  She was my best friend from high school although I never gave her enough credit for that and then when we graduated she went a different way.  We stay in touch, of course, as best as we can, especially now with Facebook and everything.  But where the vast majority of my friends and I kind of went one direction after high school, travelling together in a big, safe, pack of friends bound for in-state colleges, she went off to college somewhere else.  The distance that grew in our friendship because of that is something I'll always regret.  I'd fix it if I could.  But now I am the one that is far away.


Speaking of college.  I bet you can figure out when I got this next one.

Yep.  The good old Horse Shoe.  Ohio Stadium.  Complete with TBDBITL doing Script Ohio on the field.  As a huge Ohio State Football fan, an alumni of that school and also that band, obviously you can imagine why this ornament is special to me.  Go Bucks.  (Cymbals, and the rest of J-I Row would be rounding out the left side and bottom of that big O, by the way.)

Another pretty old one.  Heck.  Let's call it a classic, even though that's a bit of a stretch.  Back in the early 2000's these marshmallow ornaments were kind of a rage.  I bought this one in San Diego one of the first years we we there, um, the first time.

I burn 4 u.  Hahah.

Clearly I was young and silly-in-love with my new husband and I found those sorts of puns necessary and hilarious.

The next one I purchased at the same time.

A sailor snowman

Pretty obvious.  Matt was in the Navy after all and as weird as it is to think of it now, back then I was still trying to figure out what it meant to be a Navy wife.


I have a love/hate thing going with this next one.

I got it at the Exchange when we were in Japan.  Our stash of ornaments at the time was really limited and I was trying to stock up, but the things they had were pretty limited as well.  I did end up getting some cute Nutcracker ornaments and some colorful glass ones that were pretty that year too. I also got this Aircraft Carrier one, because at the time, Matt was on a carrier.

I don't actually like it that much though.

I haven't even actually put it on the tree for many years.  This year the kids saw it and insisted so it went out again.  Meh.

This next one was probably purchased at the same time.  I think.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  (I don't really remember.)  This one has "sat out" for the last several years as well.  It's back now because the kids saw it in the random bag of broken, unwanted or just generally kind of crappy ornaments and insisted, again, that I get it back out.

A lighthouse

I was going for the navy/nautical thing again, I suppose.  When we were overseas, in a foreign country, it as hard to live my own, separate from Matt's career, life.  Even when I had a job, it was on base, working for the families of sailors, so I guess at the time, I had sailors on the brain.

You're supposed to stick a light or two in the bottom and make it glow, but the LED lights we have on our tree now are too big and don't fit.

Anyway....

My one friend, the one who had an entire bin of ornaments from her childhood, had it.  She had the whole serious of Mischeivious Cats actually, but I only had eyes for one in particular.

It looked just like my beloved first cat, Britney.
I even used to tie a pink ribbon around her neck like that when I first got her.
She also definitely used to paw at the ornaments whenever she was around a Christmas tree.

Britney passed away while we were in Japan.  It happened just a couple months before we were going to come home actually.  I was devastated.  And I kept teasing my friend that I was going to steal her Britney looking ornament to remember my cat by.

That year for Christmas, my friend tracked another one of them down on eBay and gave it to me.

Now it is a nice reminder of my long lost first kitty, and also of that wonderful sweet friend who gave it to me.

(Makes me think it might also be time to get another cat.  I wonder how much Molly would try to eat one?)


This next one is another favorite.

The Hotel Del Coronado

That year that we came home from Japan, we finally got settled back in San Diego just before Thanksgiving.  As we had just been in Ohio a few times in the fall, during our transition, we made no effort to go home for Christmas.

Instead, we went with some friends out to the amazing historical hotel on the each in Coronado and enjoyed their wonderful Christmas Eve buffet.

I bought the ornament as a souvenir.

(We went back the following Christmas too.)

It was around this time that I started really collecting Hallmark ornaments.

This Noah's Ark is fun.  

A ridiculous little Santa.  I think it was a with purchase one year.
 I'm still searching for that one, "really good" Santa ornament.

Snoopy.  I suppose this was one I bought early on in my collecting because
somewhere deep down I'm still kind of jealous of my brother's Snoopy ornament.

These ice fishing penguins are cute.

I bought this one year when we were visiting Matt's older brother in Seattle.
That was before I lived there for awhile and kind of grew to strongly dislike the city.  Ha.

I bought this the year Matt was in Iraq.  Though he was able to come home for Christmas, the sentiment is obvious.  

This sparkly glass Shamu  was from our trip to Sea World that year while he was home on leave.

This Disney one came from the kid's first trip to the park for A.J.'s 1st birthday that same year.

That year, because we didn't have any of our regular ornaments from storage, I bought a
big pack of cheap ones and then the kids and I made some glittery pine cones to fill in the gaps.

We also made some cinnamon ornaments that year too.

There are several dozen of these still.  I only put a few out each year, because they smell so good!

This view master one is fun.  My brother and I loved our view master  when we were kids.
Peter thinks these are binoculars.  

I love this simple Nativity one.  I always put it right smack in the middle, front
and center to remind the kids what Christmas is really all about.

I picked up this sleeping angel on year to keep my other little angels company.  

I can never remember what year I got this one, but looking at it now I realize it says 2009 right on the front so I guess it was the  year Peter was born.  There are 3 buttons and it plays Let is Snow in 3 parts.  You can turn the different instruments on and off to hear the different parts.  

This one is so cute.  It makes me crazy every year though, because it weighs
A LOT and it's hard to find a branch that will support it.  

So, that's really it.  There are others, of course, but these are the good ones.  :)  

And just think, if we ever need it now there's a record for insurance purposes.  Let's just hope we never need it.

I'll be back, next year, to write up all about the new ornaments we get for 2016!

Christmas Ornament Inventory Part 3

I decided basically before my children were born that I was going to try my very best to get them each an ornament for the Christmas tree every year.  It seemed like a nice way to fill our tree and also a nice tradition to be able to hand them over a bin of their own ornaments some day when they grow up and move away.

(GULP.  SNIFF.  I don't even want to think about such things....)

I suppose what I didn't account for was eventually having 3 kids, which will eventually account for a whopping 54 ornaments between them total over the years of us raising them.  And that's assuming each year they each only get one ornament.  (Some years they wind up with more than one for various reasons, but mostly because Mommy is gullible.)  It also wasn't accounting for all the random series ornaments and other random ones I would end up falling in love with and buying every year.

DO YOU SEE WHY WE NEED A BIGGER TREE HUSBAND?!?!?!

(Pretty sure he never reads this anymore.)

That also isn't accounting for any ornaments they may create over the years. (My favorite!!) Although, technically, these ornaments are given to me (and their Dad.)  So maybe these should have gone with my Motherhood ornaments.  But whatever, the categories don't matter that much.  I just like looking back at them all and remembering their story.

So here goes....

* * * * * * * * * *

PETER'S ORNAMENTS

So, Peter was born into our lives in 2009.  That year, there were a few different options for Baby's First Christmas Ornaments.  Some were cutsie.  Some were cartoony.  Only one was prefect and precious and there was really no choice in my mind.

Tiny white porcelain baby shoes.  They're dated at thetop.

So very sweet.  So very fragile.  I worry every year that they will get broken.

They're also very heavy and kind of hard to hang.

Oh well.  Peter is worth it.

That year, when I only had one kid, more thoroughly had my act together, had about a dozen less things going on AND was ridiculously excited about the prospect of FINALLY having a family to create a Family Picture Christmas Card with, we had professional pictures taken.  The photos were all amazing and it was really hard to choose which ones to use.

In the end, when I was purchasing my "Tis a Gift to be a Mom" ornament, I also purchased this little picture one that says "Family."  Like I said in that post, I was working to redefine the words MOTHER and FAMILY as something positive for myself.

Our first Christmas as a FAMILY.  

The following year, 2010, Peter was 1.  A.J. had also just entered onto the scene.  Matt was graduating NPS.  We were getting ready to move again before Matt would deploy to Iraq in the spring.  It was an odd time.  I chose an ornament for Peter that year signifying his relationship with his Dad.

So cute.  I love the puppy too.  

In 2011, Peter was 2.  We had just moved from Washington, back to San Diego before Christmas.  Matt  was able to get leave and come home for Christmas.  Everything was weird that year, because most of our stuff was still in storage.  In many ways it was the best Christmas we've ever had.   The gift of Matt coming home was all any of ever could have asked for  In other ways, like I said, it was just weird.

I chose this Curious George ornament for Peter.
 One of his favorite shows.  (One of mine too.)
We also love the books.

That year, as everything was weird, and I was still trying to get my bearings on life in San Diego again, including trying to figure out which grocery store was the best place to shop at.  During one random trip to the store, a store I didn't ever shop at regularly, I found this Lightening McQueen  for Peter as well.

Lightening McQueen.  Such a big part of our lives when Peter was younger.

I can't actually remember the last time he wanted to watch on of the Cars movies.  So sad....

When he was 3 (2012) I chose the Mickey Mouse ornament for him.  This was the last year I really had final say in his ornament anyway.

Some day he's going to look at that tractor and seriously wonder about those extra hands.

That year, he had a terrible time at preschool before Christmas.  I seriously worried his behavior was bad enough that he would get expelled.  That was the year he sat down on the stage during the Christmas program.  I was so stressed out with him.  But then, he brought this ornament he'd made with his teachers at school and, none of that mattered any more.

Love that face.

In 2013 he got a Dusty Crophopper.  Over the summer I had taken him to see the Planes movie in the theater for his first ever trip out to the movies.

He also made this plastic bulb with a thumbprint reindeer on it for me.  :)

2014 and age 5 brought him to kindergarten.  Cars and planes were replaced by super heroes as his preferred toys and so that year he got Captain America.

He also requested an ornament as part of his Christmas list.  Specifically, he asked for a Hulk ornament.  Instead, he wound up with this Dragon Training one in his stocking.

And in Kindergarten he made this hand print snowman one.

That brings us to this year.  2015.  Age 6.  There is no longer a Hallmark here in town to I had to order our ornaments online.  Peter looked with me for awhile and eventually we settled on this Star Wars one.

I also got him this Woody one as well.

He swears he doesn't really like Woody.  However, Lucy LOVES Toy Story and we watch the movies around here quite often.  Meanwhile though, Peter still does frequently wear a cowboy hat.  So I got him the ornament.  Yes, they all wound up getting two ornaments this year.  A part of him will always be my little cowboy.  (Even though that toy cowboy hat of his has seriously seen some better days!)

* * * * * * * * * *

A.J.'S ORNAMENTS

A.J. came into our lives in 2010.  She was my biggest baby.  She was my loudest baby.  My most demanding.  My most needy.  The little girl I'd always wanted and never thought I'd be lucky enough to have.  

A little sister for Peter.

A daughter to be the apple of her Daddy's eye.  Or whatever.

The thing was though, because A.J. came second, it was a lot easier to choose ornaments for her.  I'd already established the traditions for him.  I just had to keep them going with her.

Her Baby's First Christmas.

When Hallmark had a porcelain rattle that year for the babies, it was an easy choice.

And then, because I'd made one fore Peter, I chose a picture of Matt and I with her and made her a photo ornament as well.

She was 3 days old when we took those pictures.

For her second Christmas (2011,) when she was just barely 1, it was the weird year during the deployment.

I got her a Tinkerbell ornament because that's who she'd been dressed up as for her first Halloween.

When I found the Lightening McQueen for Peter, I'd also gotten her this Winnie Pooh.

The next year (2012, she was 2,) I picked a Rapunzel for her.  Tangled (the movie) came out right around the time A.J. was born and I long considered Rapunzel to be "her" princess.  

When she was 3 (2013) I got her an Ariel.  We seemed to be doing well with the Disney female leads after all.  

That year, she attended a couple of Christmas Enrichment Workshops at her preschool.  At one she made us an Advent wreath.  At the second the read the Polar Express.  She made a snowflake ornament.

She also received a sleigh bell like the one from the story.

For Christmas that year, her teacher wrapped up a book for her as a gift and included this owl ornament as decoration since they were the Owl class.  :)

Last year, (2014) she was 4.  She was very into horses so I got her one for the tree.

I think she'd still be very into horses this year, except riding is so expensive and she spends all my money and her time dancing.  

Last year she also performed in her first version of The Nutcracker.  Her acro teacher organized the show so it was a "Tumbling Nutcracker" combining traditional ballet with tumbling and tricks in the choreography.

Her teacher gave them all ornaments as a thank you for participating.  

This year, 2015, she is 5.  It was hard to choose and ornament for her because she seems to be into everything.  She's in PreK.  She loves books.  She played soccer.  She's on the Mini Dance Team and she is in class or rehearsals many, many hours a week.  In the end, I decided on a singing Elsa ornament first, because it was really really cool, and even though she'll deny it sometimes, she still loves to belt out "Let it Go" and dance and twirl as much as the next girl.  (That next girl, if you're wondering, being her little sister.)

Lucy, happens to love this ornament too.  She is constantly playing it so
she can sing along and dance and twirl herself around my living room.

I also got her another ornament, based on some of her favorite books.  They were handed down to her from a neighbor when she outgrew them an A.J. obsesses over the detailed pictures.

Fancy Nancy.

A.J. does rather enjoy being a bit Fancy herself.  She also reads the Fancy Nancy Christmas book year round and kind of drives me crazy with it in, like, June.

* * * * * * * * * *

LUCY'S ORNAMENTS

It's weird how many less Ornament Lucy has so far.  It seems like she's always been part of our family and I honestly can't really remember our lives with out her.  But in reality, she is only two, and this is only out third Christmas coming up with her.

Irritatingly, by 2013, Hallmark seemed to be done with their series of Porcelain Baby's First Christmas ornaments.  Instead, the best option was this silver and glass snow globe style rattle ornament.  It's nice, but the first one I bought broke before I even got it home and NOW I really do live in constant fear that it will shatter.

In keeping with tradition, I made an ornament with her and Matt and I for her First Christmas as well.

In 2014, when she was 1, I chose this Lucy ornament.  Because, obviously.

When you raise the flag on the side of the mailbox Snoopy slides out and kisses Lucy on the nose.
Then Lucy complains that she's been kissed by a dog.  Hahaha.

This year, as I already mentioned, it was too hard to choose and Lucy got two ornaments herself.

Doc McStuffins

and

Sophia the First

A.J. never really cared for either of those shows when she was younger.  But Lucy loves them both.  

In any case, those are their collections so far.  I can't wait to keep adding over the years.



Also, *fingers crossed* for a couple more really cute hand made ornaments from Peter and A.J. again this year.  A.J. has actually never really made an ornament other than that plastic snowflake.  She's made me an advent wreath and a wreath banner and a nativity painting, but still no ornament.  Even worse, Peter is almost past the age of making ornaments for me at school altogether.  (argh!)  I'm so glad I have Lucy to be a little just a while longer.