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



Simple Christmas Pleasures!

Ahhh...it's that time of year again!  I absolutely LOVE it! 

It's that time when you pull out the Christmas tree...and the decorations...and the brownies!
It's that time when we take on the Christmas songs (I'm waiting for Luke to get his Christmas singing on full-fledge) and it's that time when we celebrate our dear Savior's birth.  I read a book to Luke today about when Jesus was born and when I told him about the manger and why Jesus slept there, he said (in a concerned voice), "Why?  There might be spiders!"  Talk about cute!  :)

Yes, it's just November, but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here (and it's definately looking like Christmas at my cousin Trey's house...he and his wife put up their tree the day after Halloween).  The Christmas tree is up, the fall decorations are going into storage and the Christmas decorations are coming out (and so is the mess that comes with them!), Christmas lists are being formed, and Christmas sweets are being cooked up!

Speaking of which, I found a simple "recipe" for cinnamon toast the other day and I had never made it before, so I tried my hand at it.  I made it another time since then and had help from Daddy and Luke.  It's so pretty and really gets you in the Christmas mood with that cold wind blowing outside and the cozy Christmas tree lights glowing.



I took this with my daddy's camera--we call it "rinky dink".  I was suprised at how well it turned out!



Again, I was suprised at how well the pictures turned out!  Isn't it pretty?  Mama and I have always thought cinnamon smelled so yummy!

The traditional advent calendar is up...what a joy!

I always had so much fun with this.  You leave all the little dolls in the pockets until the first day of December.

I always start with the trees and end with Baby Jesus, so I guess you could say I add them to the scene on the calendar in order of importance.  The funny thing is, when I added the Wisemen....

I always added this one first, because for some reason to my child mind, he looked meaner than the other Wisemen...therefore, he was less important!  I think it's his eyes, don't you?

This one came in the middle, because he wasn't the nicest looking fella, but he wasn't mean looking, either.

And this one came last, because I thought he looked very kind.

Don't you love memories like that?  I always liked the Little Drummer Boy for some reason, too.  Maybe it was because he was so small and I liked his clothes.

On Friday night, we watched A Smoky Mountain Christmas (starring D*lly Parton) and The Saunta Clause (starring Tim A*len).  We didn't like The Saunta Clause much...it doesn't quite give you that Christmas-y feel--the parents are divorced and Tim/Scott seems to always be yelling at his kid. 

But, A Smoky Mountain Christmas is such a cozy and Christmas-y movie!  It also stars Lee M*jors.

Fun fact: My older brother, Colt, was sort of named after the character that Lee M*jors played in The Fall Guy, Colt Seavers.  That's where my Mama first heard the name, anyway. 

More favorites of ours are It's a Wonderful Life, A Holiday for Love (starring Me*issa Gilbert), A Holiday Romance, and of course, Prancer.  But a post of Christmas movies is coming soon! 

And of course, if you've seen the movie Prancer, you probably have come across this article that Jessica Riggs reads in the movie.  Well, Mama found it in a magazine one year and tore out the page.  We just recently framed and hung it, but before that, it had a place of honor at the piano.

Sorry for the glare!

So what are your Christmas traditions and memories?  Favorite Christmas movies?

God bless you!
Joy :D

                                              ~*~

Please keep Luke in your prayers.  His stomach is bothering him and he's already thrown up once.  He needs prayers for feeling better quickly and we also need prayers that the rest of the family won't get whatever he has!  We realized last night that Luke has actually never thrown up in the year and five months we've had him. 

Thank you for your prayers!