Christmas Tree Ornaments: New and Old!

Wow--can you believe there are only 18 days until Christmas?  That's crazy!  I did, though, get all my Christmas shopping done on Monday.  Mama and I made a mother/daughter date out of it.  I didn't have much money to spend (as in, $21.25) and I had to buy for six or seven people, but with Mama's help, I managed to stay on budget!  I'll be making a lot of the presents and just using items from the dollar store.  The sweet, sweet dollar store.  :)

Anyway, I wanted to share with you some of our favorite and most sentimental Christmas ornaments.  Some are new, some are old; some are store-bought or have been given to us, and some we've made ourselves.  Oh, and I'm sorry if some of the pictures are blurry!  Some of them were okay to take with the flash, and some weren't...I didn't get it right on all of them!  :)

These ornaments...

...were made by my mama.  She made one first for Colt, then for me.  It's a star (much like a King David Star) made out of popsicle sticks coated in glitter (gold or silver).  In the center, you put a picture of the child.  We're planning on making one for Luke this year!

These were made recently--last Christmas--by Luke and I.  We like to make at least one type of Christmas ornament each year if not more, and this



Of course, it is nothing other than a train!

was the first Christmas tree ornament Luke ever made.  I made these two last year:

And salt dough ornaments...oh so easy and oh so cute!



This one was made by Colt WAY before I was born.

And I just LOVE this ornament that my mama found for me at K*hl's on B*ack Friday--she knows how much I love Asia!

Have any of you seen the movie It's a Wonderful Life?  A while back (before I was born), my mama and older brother, Colt, went to meet "ZuZu" (George Bailey's youngest daughter in the movie) at our local library.  Of course, she was all grown up (It's a Wonderful Life was made in 1946).  She signed out copy of the movie and signed the ornament that we bought--it had her picture on it.  Anyone remember ZuZu's petals?  :)

These ornaments are ones that my mama bought for she and my daddy's first Christmas together as a married couple.  It's possible that one of them might have been my great-grandmother's--Mama said she doesn't remember which ones she bought and which ones were my great-grandmother's.  She says that she had so much fun shopping that first Christmas!

These are some more fun, homemade ornaments.  Make a triangle out of popsicle sticks and put a piece of triangular paper behind it; then let the child draw and/or color a manger scene inside.  Attach ribbon and hang on the tree!  You can even add straw/raffia at the bottom of the triangle and a star/star sticker at the top!


Every year, my grandmama and pop give each granddaughter (this year, there are four of us) an angel ornament and each grandson (this year, there are four of those) a snowman ornament.  This year, I got this angel:

And Luke and Colt got these snowmen:

Have you ever seen these ornaments?  Take a Prin*le lid and cut out a Christmas-y picture in a circle that will fit onto the lid.  Glue it on, and then outline it in glitter and stick a hanging-hook through it and you've got yourself a cute, homemade ornament!

Our friend Kim and Chuck, whom we traveled with in C*ina (they were adopting their daughter, Shiloh, from Luke's province), sent us this ornament last year.  It has Merry Christmas written on it in both English and Chinese.

This is from when I played the part of Gladys in the play The Best Christmas Pageant ever.  I was five and I LOVED it!  Our local theater is putting on The Little Princess this Spring and I'm hoping to try out for one of the parts.  :)



I insisted on writing my name and the name of my part in the play at the bottom.

And I love these little booties from my first Christmas...they're so delicate and pretty!

My mama made these ornaments in 2008.  She is so talented--she made these herself!

And last but not least, every tree needs a topper--whether it be a star or an angel!

So what about you?  Tell me about your ornaments!

God bless you!

Joy :D



There's a First for Everything...

And I've had a lot of them! I was flipping through some of our old pictures[from 03-04], and I found some of my firsts!




First swimming lesson! I had so much fun with our teacher, Miss Paula. I think I took for about two or three years, and I made lots of friends. Miss Paula was easy to trust. If someone got scared she let them sit down for a little while, and she was very soothing when she spoke. She never forced us to do anything. And she gave out gummy bears at the end of class!! :)Oh and yes, my mom made me swim in the hairbow. I never went ANYWHERE without a hairbow! We had two long ribbons pinned to the inside of my closet with all kinds of bows on them. Bows with ballerinas, bows with my name, bows with hearts, bows with animals, bows with EVERYTHING! :)



First Trip to Universal Studios! I loved it! I got to meet my all time FAVORITE superhero, Spiderman, and met the rugrats, (More like the rugbrats...LOL Angelica was there too!) Scooby Doo and Shaggy, Barney, Curious George and the Man with the yellow hat, and the guy from "Green Eggs and Ham"! I also went on a few rides. There was this really fun ride where you get in this huge boat-ish thingie with about eight seats, in a semi circle, and you go down rapids! It was really WET!! :)



First dance recital...so fun! I remember half of the time we had to sit in these little chairs that had our names on them and all we had to play with were these minature little ballerina toys! We couldn't even talk! Do you know how hard that is for three year olds?? But it was still fun! I remember in our dance we had to make a little circle, then scrunch into each other, and on the video, you can see our faces, and we're giggling our little heads off and getting tangled up in each other! It's so cute!! It was a great experience, and strangely, I wasn't nervous at all!



First time driving the lawnmower! Of course, the blades were off, but I got to drive it all by myself for like an hour! My pop was just outside working on his other tractors and doing yardwork, and he let me drive it! I felt so big! LOL! Mom actually got on the back of it with me, and I kept stopping really fast, and she would jerk forward. It was really funny. Now I like to drive it if I get a chance!



First time being in a wedding! I had to get up around 4 in the morning, because it was on TV! It was a sweepstakes, and my cousin Lindsey won! So I was filmed walking down the aisle in my little flower girl dress! Kemper was the ring bearer, and we had lots of fun running around and staring at his little pillow. He wasn't carrying the actual rings, but he said he was anyway. Boys. ;)



First time at the beach! As you can see, mom made me wear a bow here too. LOL! I had so much fun! Sandcastles, wading, swimming, and just gettin' some sun! [not very much of that, though. Haha] I met a little girl and we played almost the entire time!



First Barbie car, which I had SO much fun with! I took good care of it, and I was the only one who got to drive(Proof, MOM AND DAD, that I'll be a responsible driver!), so it lasted a while. LOL!



First Soccer game! Afterwards, I fell out on the couch and slept for a REALLY long time! We won every game that season! We were called the lavas, I think. Something like that. Or the fireballs...something with fire. I played three seasons! I had so many friends from it!



First time holding Laci, my little cousin, when she was a baby! I loved her and took really good care of her! You can see that written all over my face in that picture.



First time at Jamboree! It was through our church, an overnight trip to a local campground, and we did a Christian cheer and drama, and made a banner. It was just me and Katie, but we had lots of fun. Here we are doing our drama, which we did to the song "Shine" by the Newsboys.



And recently, my first catfish! I caught it at our friend's house down the road. It took a little while to get in!

God bless,
Love, Joy :)