I'm terribly sentimental. I was a sentimental pack-rat. It occurred to me when I had children, that if I continued to save everything, I would need a second home just for storage, and unless the National Archives became available, I wasn't going to find a space to suffice. So I learned to become more selective. I still save a myriad of things, mostly cards and notes, but I no longer have every single note, card, dried flower, or ticket stub from the beginning of my teenage years.
Among the sentimental treasures I have kept are ornaments. With the exception of the traditional shiny ball ornaments, that I purchased for the first few years I had my own tree, so that it was fully ornamented, there is a story or a name behind every ornament on my tree.
Every year my dad and his wife started to buy my sister and I an ornament, that had significance about something that we had done that year. I have two skiing moose ornaments that they bought the year my husband and I went skiing with them in Quebec. They found the ornaments, but personalized them by painting their ski clothes to look like the ones we wore on the trip. There is a glass alligator from the year they moved to Savannah in a house on the Inter-Coastal Waterway, with it's share of alligators lounging on the bank opposite theirs.
I have ornaments that my mom had painted, ornaments that I made as a child, ornaments that Frankie and Luci have made, ornaments from places we vacationed, and ornaments from students- and I remember each of those students when I decorate the tree.
I don't know if I could choose a favorite among them. I certainly could never get rid of any, and I add a few new ones every year, not including the ones from my dad. There is only one solution. I will just have to start putting up a second tree.
Among the sentimental treasures I have kept are ornaments. With the exception of the traditional shiny ball ornaments, that I purchased for the first few years I had my own tree, so that it was fully ornamented, there is a story or a name behind every ornament on my tree.
Every year my dad and his wife started to buy my sister and I an ornament, that had significance about something that we had done that year. I have two skiing moose ornaments that they bought the year my husband and I went skiing with them in Quebec. They found the ornaments, but personalized them by painting their ski clothes to look like the ones we wore on the trip. There is a glass alligator from the year they moved to Savannah in a house on the Inter-Coastal Waterway, with it's share of alligators lounging on the bank opposite theirs.
I have ornaments that my mom had painted, ornaments that I made as a child, ornaments that Frankie and Luci have made, ornaments from places we vacationed, and ornaments from students- and I remember each of those students when I decorate the tree.
I don't know if I could choose a favorite among them. I certainly could never get rid of any, and I add a few new ones every year, not including the ones from my dad. There is only one solution. I will just have to start putting up a second tree.
I love stories about mice and have acquired a few dozen mouse ornaments. I love this one. It is very tiny; the mouse is not even an inch. He hangs from a tiny strand of strung popcorn. I have to find the perfect place to hang each side of the popcorn strand so he dangles in the lights as if he was going from one branch to the next.
Tiffany H made this for me back in 1995. She was a student in the social studies class I taught. It's a little stuffed mouse and it clips onto the tree with a clothespin. She made an Easter decoration for me the same year. I put that out every year too.
My mom made this angel; I think there were two at one time, perhaps, she now has the other one. She made them and gave them to my grandmother, her mom. I remember that my grandmother kept them in the hutch in her dining room year round. When she passed away, this one found its way back to me. I think of my mom and my grandmother every time I hang it on the tree.
I easily could have photographed a hundred or so more, but my railroad building services were in high demand, and so I leave you with just a brief glance at a few of my favorite ornaments.
I easily could have photographed a hundred or so more, but my railroad building services were in high demand, and so I leave you with just a brief glance at a few of my favorite ornaments.