keeping Christmas memories

The night after Thanksgiving, we started to dig out the Christmas stuff.  We put the kid's tree up first and let them decorate with all their special ornaments.  It is always so much fun to remember all the favorites.  We pack them away very carefully at the end of the season, each back into their original boxes.  Each Christmas, it is like opening old memories!  

My dear friend, Judy, started buying Blake a set of Hallmark ornaments that corresponded with his birth year and grew along with him for five years!  They were the best gift ever! They are little boy puppies that begin as a baby, and grow up a bit each year thereafter.  We now do the same yearly ornament for Taylor too, it is so fun to get to unwrap the first present of the year and hang them on the tree.

Blake with his first ornament

opening "this year's" ornament gift

both sets!!

 We always keep them in their original box and inside each box there is a memory card.  It tells who the ornament is from and you can write in one special Christmas memory from that year...it turned out to be the most special thing...oh how I love to dig them out and read/remember the moments from the past. 
The first memory card reminded us that Blake would rather watch the dog unwrap presents and just play with the wrapping paper.  The second year, Blake got a John Deere Gator and a little vacuum cleaner just like Mommy's and guess what?  He wanted nothing to do with the cool ride-on toy...he'd rather vacuum around it!! (Billy wasn't happy, lol!)  The next two years cards are bittersweet, they recall wonderful memories of grandparents who have since passed...the memories, where does the time go?

We loved the memory card sooo much that we continue it, each year.  I let them buy one special ornament each year that represents what they are "into".  When we pack them all up for the year, we take time to write that one special summary of this Christmas.  I used my collection of old Christmas cards that I hadn't thrown away to cut out cute memory cards, we pack them away with the decorations to remember next year!