One of My Favorite Parts of Christmas.

I had one of my favorite days of the Christmas season the other day. Sunday we decorated our tree. Oliver and Adelaide had been so excited for the days leading up to Sunday. They kept on telling me how excited they were to put the ornaments on the tree. Honestly, I thought they would put two ornaments on the tree and lose interest.

Instead, the opposite happened and I felt an enormous swell of love in my heart for them and the memories we were creating as a family. They opened up the boxes of ornaments and they asked us about each one. We had ornaments from Chris when he was a little boy, ornaments from my childhood and ornaments that they have been given since they were born. I never realized, until they started asking questions, just how much meaning simple little ornaments hold to telling the story of a person's past. To an outsider, these ornaments would be meaningless. But to us, our family, they tell a story.

I don't have pictures of all the ornaments for obvious reasons, but we definitely have a few favorites. One of them is a drum that Chris received from his Grandma Zoffuto years ago. As Oliver was looking at it and asking about it, he pressed down in the middle of the drum and it started playing music! It still worked after all these years. Grandma Zoffuto was such a special woman and her memory continues to live on through this ornament.

One of my favorites is a customized Key West ball ornament that we had made while we were living in Key West. It reminds me of the fun year we had living at the beach.

We found an ornament from my grandparents that they gave to me when I was four years old. I still have it and I love it.

Another one that Oliver and Adelaide asked us about was a ballerina (have I mentioned that Adelaide has been obsessed with dancing lately). It was given to me by my best elementary school friend, Kelly. It's actually falling apart, quite frankly, but it brought back so many memories.

Oliver and Adelaide asked a ton of questions about their ornaments. They had been given to them from their grandparents and last year I took them to pick out a special ornament for the tree. They were so interested in hearing stories about receiving their ornaments that I knew they were realizing how special these gifts from some of their favorite people were.

I can't quite describe how it felt to see Oliver and Adelaide so excited about decorating our tree. I guess I felt nostalgic and happy at the same time. It also made me realize just how meaningful a small trinket can be. A gift does not have to be measured by the amount of money it costs. It is measured by the memories it creates.

Adelaide is desperately searching for more of her ornaments. She got so excited to see ones that had her name on them.

Here are a few ornaments that brought back some memories!

Once our tree was all decorated, Oliver and Adelaide were ready for a picture.

This year, Oliver was chosen to put the angel on our tree. Our angel has become a tradition. When I first bought it three years ago, I had an 18 month old and a one month old and was about to lose my mind from exhaustion. I was at Home Depot and realized that I did not have anything for the top of our tree. I spotted this angel and thought it looked great. I brought it home, we put it on top of our tree and realized that it is an angel that changes color. It goes from red, to blue, to green, to purple and then gold. We had a good laugh and decided that was our angel. And it is. Every year, it is proudly placed on the top of our tree. A tradition was born.

We also end our tree decorating with another tradition- hot chocolate with candy canes. Yum!
Every morning when Oliver comes downstairs, he plugs in the tree and sings, "Oh Christmas tree, how wonderful you are to me." It is really cute and makes me smile. And I agree completely with my little man. Oh Christmas tree, how wonderful you are to me.