Ornaments

Every year the kids get a new ornament to put on the tree when we decorate it.  They get so excited waiting for the tree to get up so they can get their ornaments.  

 I always try really hard to find ornaments that are meaningful to them and represent something from their lives this past year.

 This year was a different story.  I searched high and low for the perfect ornaments and wow!...crap.  That's all I could find.  I guess except for Hallmark but I have moral reasons against paying $16 for one ornament.  Anyway....

 So after searching more we ended up with letters.  The kids were excited for them (or at least pretended to be) and we got the tree up, which is another story in itself.

 You see, I LOVE real trees.  That's what we always had growing up and after having a fake one for the 8 years of marriage, we started going to the mountains to cut one down.

 Well this year Sam was not going to do that!  After much pleading and cajoling and still not being able to talk him into it I gave in and went with him to look at fake trees ( I tried to tell him now was not the time to buy them but he was quite set on getting an artificial one!).

 So after a tour around Wally World he changed his mind about that fake tree and we headed off to a tree lot to buy a tree and make a donation to charity.  

 It wasn't quite the cutting it down in the mountains experience I was hoping for but we have a real tree, it's beautiful and it makes the house smell AMAZING!!

 Here is the beauty in all it's kids did the decorations glory!