Deck the Halls with a Time Capsule Tree

One thing I really love about Christmas is getting out our ornaments.  We don't do a theme tree.  Instead our tree is more like a time capsule full of handmade ornaments done by the kids and ornaments that commemorate travel and new events in our lives.  I really don't collect anything other than lots of pictures and lots of ornaments.

Each of the kids has two first Christmas ornaments. As they have each collected ornaments over the years, I plan to give them to my kids to start their own tree collections when they have their own homes.  I felt it only fair that I get to keep a first Christmas ornament for each of my babies and let them have one too.

This is our newest addition and the only ornament added this year.  Tessa and John picked this up for us on their honeymoon trip.

Mom brought this one back from Ireland for us.

Mom brought this one from Germany for us.

Each of the kids have one of these in various colors.  Mom bought these in Mexico.

Wow!  That picture was taken 19 years ago.

Each of the kids has a nutcracker.

Our Sunday school class has an annual Christmas party for the grown-ups.  They used to include an ornament each year for every family attending.  We actually made these one year.

another first Christmas ornament for Zach

Julia's first Christmas.  For Wyatt and Julia, I put the actual year that they joined the family and thus celebrated their first Christmases.  On another ornament, I put their Chinese name, birthdate, and American name.

Olive wood ornaments found in Zach an Savannah's stockings years ago.

Savannah's first Christmas ornament.  Savannah's ornaments were added to the tree late this year.  She was really sick when we trimmed the tree and very slow to recover.  She was then overwhelmed with school work and prep for finals.  I finally put her ornaments on the tree, and she was so relieved that she did not have to do it herself.

our first real Christmas tree - I love it and am not sure we will do artificial trees any more.