25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Day 6

These frosted glass ball ornaments are sold by our city each year. They started the yearly ornaments in 1994 and my parents gave me & my sister the city ornament each year for Christmas. They stopped making these a few years ago but I am happy to report they have started again this year. However, the ornaments this year are different and are not the glass balls. Anyway, each year they come out with a different ornament that highlights a place in our city. This particular year was the Carnegie Library which is now an art museum in our city known as the Carnegie Visual Arts Center. Our daughter Abbey actually had some artwork displayed for 2 months there last year when she won an art contest at school. They have also featured the Keller Drawbridge, the Princess Theater, the Old State Bank & more. These ornaments are special because Decatur is my home. I lived her my entire life growing up & we still live there today. Years down the road, it will be neat for our children to hang these ornaments on the tree and be reminded of some of the major architectural places in the city they were raised in.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Day 5

This is another one of my mercury glass ornaments. I bought two of these ornaments a few years ago when I worked in a gift shop as holiday help during Christmas. My mother-in-law loves roosters and has tons of them in her house & kitchen. In fact, she now has a real rooster and our kids love going to their house to see it & listen to it "cock a doodle doo". I knew she needed one of these ornaments for her tree and gave it to her for Christmas and she loved it. I don't even like roosters that much but I loved the details on this ornament. It has such vivid, beautiful colors and the tail feathers are even accented with glitter. This ornament just shines and sparkles on our tree.

And talk about miracles at Christmas....we woke up to SNOW at our house this morning! We live in North Alabama and very, very rarely ever get snow. In fact, the past few years we have been able to go to Christmas gatherings without even wearing a jacket. It was beautiful outside and I would say we had about an inch of snow. Yes, I realize that is not much for those of you who live in other areas but for us that is a decent snow! So I am holding out hope that the cold weather continues to stick around and maybe we could even get another visit of snow at Christmastime....it sure feels more "Christmasey" when it's cold outside.

A Little Christmas Humor

A little background before you watch this video: The 2 "elves" are my husband David and his first cousin. His first cousin is more like his brother. They are 2 years apart (David is older) and grew up together. In fact, when we first got married, he lived with us a few times. The other 3 "elves" that appear on top of the house are 3 of our friends that live in Canada. They are very good friends of ours and obviously, very good sports! :) This video reminds me of the Southerners vs. Canadians. Enjoy......

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25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Day 4

When our daughter Abbey was born, my sister joined in the tradition of giving our kids a yearly ornament. I was thrilled because then Abbey would grow up with the same traditions and memories that me & Marcy have done with our aunts giving us yearly ornaments. Marcy made this ornament herself for Abbey's first Christmas. It is a ceramic teddy bear that she hand painted.

On the back of the bear's diaper, she wrote "Abbey 2001" and on the bottom of the ornament she wrote "from Aunt Marcy". On December 12 , I will share the story behind Marcy & I learning to paint ceramics. Abbey loves her little bear and delights in putting it on the tree each year.

Don't forget to check out all the ornaments displayed so far by clicking HERE!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Day 3

This is a 4 inch tall Russ Troll Doll ornament. These dolls are no longer made and were last produced in 1993. Do you remember when the Troll dolls were such a hit?! There is no magical story or sweet memory from this ornament. It was given to me one Christmas as my special ornament. However, I love this ugly little thing! Now that we have kids, they love this little troll as much as I do. In fact, they always want to not put it on the tree and play with it instead. Needless to say, it ends up on the tree because they never can agree on who gets to play with it and an argument breaks out and thus, the ornament ends up on the tree for Christmas! And if you would like your own Troll ornament, you are in luck....Ebay still sells them and they are cheap! :)

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Day 2

This ornament is actually a sock! It was given to me in 1978. It is so soft and inside the ornament is a little piece of paper that my Dad wrote that says "G - 1978" in red ink. I love putting this little sock on my tree each year. This year, Wyatt said "Mommy, I want to put your sock on my tree, too." so of course, I let him!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Day 1

This Winnie the Pooh dough ornament was made for me in 1977 (my first Christmas). It is special because my nursery was also Winnie the Pooh decor and this ornament was hand sculpted and painted for me. Every year when I put it on my tree, I am reminded of how unique it is because of what it is made from and reminded about all the love & care my parents took into creating my nursery for me. Amazingly enough, it has lasted beautifully all these years even though it is made of dough. You can make your own dough ornaments too!