We all have them, don't we?

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I'm talking about favorite ornaments, Christmas ornaments that are special to us for some reason. I cannot believe it took so long for my tree to get finished this year, but it is finally up in all it's glory. And as I put it up and went through the ornaments I couldn't help but remember where they came from.

Some of my daughter's favorite ornaments are ones I made when I was newly married and had very little money. I took small wooden match book boxes and wrapped them like tiny gifts, strung them on ribbon and there you go. Ornaments. I still have 3 or 4 of them, one that used to be red foil and is now so old and faded it looks gold. They are at least 25 plus (yikes) years old.

I have other ornaments from around the same time that I bought as a kit. Pieces of wood with pictures on them you paint and punch out to hang on the tree. I have several of those and I hang them as prominently as any of my expensive Christopher Radkos, and probably more lovingly.

There are hand sewn silk animal ornaments I purchased many millions of years ago, before kids, when I worked at a Pier 1 Imports store for a few months. There are a couple of prized ornaments that belonged to my BF's mother who has passed away. I am honored he entrusted me with some of her pretty things.

There is an ornament made from styrofoam and pipe cleaners (Jimmy Kramer where are you?) that was given to us as a gift by a good Jewish boy who spent Christmas with my then-fiance and I a long long time ago. Jimmy was going to be an elementary school teacher, I wonder if it ever happened.

There are 2 ornaments that are always placed with care in the same spots on the tree every year. One is placed right in the front and center, a frosted glass ball on which is painted the picture of the only house I ever owned, and my daughter counts as her childhood home even though we only lived there for 5 years. The ornament was a gift from our realtor of all people, hand painted, and a good likeness of that house. My daughter insists it be hung right out there in front because that is where we lived before the divorce, where she could run outside and play with the neighborhood kids and wasn't yet aware of any turmoil. Happy memories for her.

The other ornament that always gets hung in a specific place is a little book of Mother Goose Rhymes. I used to hang it high because if I didn't, it always ended up off the tree and in a child's grubby little hands. I think it was more of a game than anything. Mom doesn't want me to take this down, so I really want to read it even more!!! Looking back, that book getting a bit dog eared wouldn't have been such a bad thing, but it's too late now. I still hang it high - because that's just where it goes.

I suspect someday when I give a few of those ornaments to my kids - they just might occupy the same spots on one of their trees as well. Some things are just supposed to be.
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