traditions

Growing up, my brother and I would always get to open our first gift at the dinner table on Christmas Eve. It was always an ornament, often matching each other (Raggedy Ann & Andy, Miss Piggy & Kermit, etc.), and at the end of the season they would each be labeled with our name and the year. We were always told that when we grew up we would each get our ornaments for our own trees.

This week I've been decorating our tree, a tree I'm referring to as the 'high stepper' because I had the guys at the tree lot trim off the bottom branches and now there is like two feet of space between the tree and the carpet. Dumb dumb dumb.



I have my own collection of ornaments I've gathered through the years, but even after I finished hanging them all last night the high stepper still looked a little sparse. I think all Chrismas trees are beautiful, but mine just never quite look like the ones we had growing up.

After the last ornament was hung and I had packed up all the boxes, I remembered I had gotten a package from my mom that day that I hadn't yet had a chance to open. Guess what was inside?

A bunch of my ornaments, as well as other favorites from our family tree!







This year, this one is particularly special.