O Christmas Tree!

Doug and I got married in November 2004 and one of my favorite gifts was a bunch of Christmas ornaments from his sister Melissa. Our tree that year was complete with lots of ornaments despite our having been married only a few weeks by the time it got decorated! We each had some of our own to contribute and we've accumulated some more in the years since. And this year - we had a lot of fun pulling out all of the old ornaments and decorating the tree for the first time as a family of 3! Here's some of my favorite ornaments!

We each have our own "Baby's First Christmas Ornament!"

Doug's first Christmas - 1978

Rachel's first Christmas - 1980

Katie's first Christmas - 2008 (given to us by my Aunt Betsy)

Just Married - 2004 - bought at a craft's festival (given to us my by Doug's mom)

Jamaica! We bought this on our honeymoon and decided we would always try and buy an ornament from anywhere special that we went together!

The Boot! - I hang this in honor of my brother and sister-in-law in Texas!

The Bowling Santa - We all know Doug's a bowler and this cheesy bowling Santa couldn't be more UNLIKE Doug - but it's cute just the same! (given to Doug by my mom)

The Pomeranian - We got this ornament before we had Jack - it looks so much like Punkin - The Jones family dog that lived with us for her last few years. She was such a pretty dog - she wore the pomeranian fluff much better than Jack does!

The Paper Mache Ball - this ornament came from my grandmother's house after she passed away. I got several ornaments from her house and they all have their own box with note cards handwritten by my grandmother stating where the ornaments came from. This one was from a friend of hers who lived in Texas.

Finally, our allegiances!
Here's Cocky driving a little sports car near the top of the tree.

A Clemson one just to even things out!

And the beloved PSU ornament which is way near the top so Katie doesn't accidentally break it.


Most of our other ornaments are plastic this year since Katie seems fascinated by them all. Her favorite is a series of snowman that have slinky-like arms or legs!