ornament traditions

Ornaments are a very touchy subject for some people. I feel like depending on how someone was raised has a huge impact on what their Christmas tree ends up looking like and for our house we are no different. For mr g, he never had a tree growing up. I on the other hand, had a night near Thanksgiving that was designated to just decorating the tree. My sisters and I each had our own box of our ornaments that we would put on the tree. Then in the living room mom had her own tree that was dignified, and fancy, and matching.

So where does that leave us? Seeing as we have no kids right now and are very much into things looking put together we usually have a matchy, put-together tree...except our few special ones.

On our honeymoon in the middle of August four years ago, we happened across a Christmas store in Hawaii. It was like it was just meant to be. We randomly decided to buy an ornament to start a new collection as a married couple and so began our tradition. 

For our one year anniversary, we went to Disneyland with my sister and mr g's brother. It was so much fun and the best one year anniversary we could have had. Such a blast! And while we were there, we remembered to find an ornament to add to the collection.

Year two was the summer after college and we headed to Europe on a trip of a lifetime...Mediterranean cruise where we had the opportunity to visit Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. I think that trip wins as the best vacation ever taken...sorry mom! The '99 Canada roadtrip was pretty great but the dolphins in Edmonton mall just can't beat the sunsets in Greece.

And now for year number four. Of course the greatest life event from this year was buying a home. Such an amazing, fantastic, terrifying, wonderful event. Just this past week we've had some shingles come off in a wind storm and a leak below the sink but ya know, I wouldn't change it for anything. I love our home! I love making it ours and finally feeling settled. I just love this life.

What fun ornament traditions do you have? Do you have one classy, organized, matching tree, and one kid tree? When we have kids it'll be a tough decision for sure which tree goes in the living room!! But for now, I love having our matching tree except for a special ornament representing each year of marriage. Such a blessed reminder of everything we have been through.