Christmas Tree 2010: Ethan Edition

Welcome to our Christmas Tree 2010 again! Today we will be focusing on Ethan and his collection of ornaments, or at least the ones that have survived thus far!

I was super excited when I found this ornament this year. At the beginning of this school year Ethan started playing the Trumpet in band! LOVE IT!

Nate and I picked this beauty up at the scout office down in Salt Lake City this past summer. We thought it was perfect to remember Ethan's first year of being a BOY Scout, coincidentally it is also the 100 year anniversary of Boy Scouts this year. Super Cool.

In 2008 I got this ornament for Ethan, what I REALLY wanted was a cool Harry Potter ornament. However, I had the most difficult time finding one. Hence the inner need to buy some in Orlando. But I am getting ahead of myself. You'll see.

This was one was the first ornament Ethan brought home from school. It was 2002, he was in his first year of Pre-school.

This was made in 2003. I remember thinking the Pre-school was crazy to put those little beads on with the kids. It has always been placed up high on my tree to keep it away from little fingers and mouths. Crazy that seven Christmases later it still sits up high!

This sweet ornament Ethan made in school a few years ago. Crazy me forgot to write the year on it, so it's a wild guess to figure out when it was. I LOVE this ornament. The cute little snowmen on it are made out of his hand print. Can you say CA-UTE! I love hand made ornaments. It melts this mama's heart in a major way!

Ethan's primary ornament in 2007.

This was the ornament that Ethan made in Primary the first year we lived here in Willard. It was 2006, he was seven years old. Have I mentioned that handmade ornaments are my favorite?

This ornament was given to me from a co-worker back in 1999, when I worked for Customer Service at Living Scriptures. Ethan was six months old. Since we had just had these pictures taken of him, it worked perfectly.

We picked the next two up while in Orlando a couple weeks ago. The first one is a Gryffindor ornament that we purchased while at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

While we were at the Lego store in Downtown Disney, we picked up this Dumbledore Lego ornament. They were out of Harry Potter ones, so Ethan opted for this one.

Christmas Tree 2010: Nate and Ronda Edition

I was thinking the other day about some of our possessions in our house. Pretty much everything in our home holds some meaning to us. We had just taken part in an Emergency Preparedness Reunion with Nate's family (more on that another day) and we ran a mock emergency drill. We were given a pretend emergency and had a certain amount of time to grab things from our homes and evacuate immediately. Christmas decor definitely didn't make the list of things to grab. So, I thought it would be good to take some photos of some of our sentimental ornaments/decor that we have. Just in case something happens to them. Today I just want to look at the ornaments that are mine and Nate's. We will get a peek at the kids another time.

When we first moved her we still had our tree that Nate bought the day after Christmas in 1997. We were engaged and his mom worked at Dillards at the time. He went early and waited in line and then dashed inside and grabbed one of the display trees tags. It was a great tree for all of those years, but I gotta admit pre-lit trees are HEAVEN! I didn't think we had space for a fat tree in our little corner of the great room in this house, so our first Christmas here I bought this pencil tree. The last year or two I have definitely decided I am ready for a fuller fatter tree again. Unfortunately I didn't get around to ever getting me a new tree so we are using it again this year. I am totally planning on using this tree somewhere else in the house next year because I will have a new one, for sure! We are also outgrowing it at a rapid pace. This year I didn't use almost half of our ornaments! Time to become a two tree family! Maybe three!

I love my little train I have at the base of my tree. I picked it up last year I think. Maybe the year before, who remembers. It always makes me happy when I see it.

This is an ornament given to Nate by his Mom. I don't remember the year, but I believe it was during the time that they lived in Europe while in the military. She started a tradition of getting her kids an ornament. I don't know if she did it every year or what but here are a few that have survived all of these years that were given to Nate.

We picked this up to remember the year we went to Paris. It was March 2006. Isn't it beautiful? I want to go back.

Nate got this for me for Christmas in 2007. The year that our youngest, Evelyn, was born.

Nate's mom gave one of these to he and his brothers in 1986. The year
that the space shuttle Challenger exploded.

Nate's mom got this for him for his first Christmas home from his mission to Taiwan. It was 1996.

This ornament was one that Nate's mom gave to him when he was 12 years old.
It was 1987.

We picked this one up at Mount Vernon while visiting the DC area back in August 2009. I thought it was super pretty.

It's funny, we have had this ornament since February of 2007 and this is the first year it has been put on the tree. Since Christmas was obviously over when we got home from our Caribbean Cruise it didn't find it's way into the Christmas the boxes. I put it somewhere to keep it safe. Apparently safe is another word for lost or forgotten at our house. I came across it again this summer and it has patiently been waiting for Christmas down in my croffice ever since. In fact when we put the tree up this year I still forgot about it. I only remembered today that I even had it.

Some years we get more than one ornament for our tree. Just whatever we come across that has significance for us. This wristband obviously isn't really an ornament but it means something to us. It first graced our tree in 2009.

The kids and I got Nate this ornament back in 2008. The year he was diagnosed with Cancer.

Nate and I picked this up while on a trip to the Big Apple back in December 2008.