Christmas adornments - part 2

Here's more of my favorite things to look at around the Christmas season.

We are one of those families . . . You know the ones that stand in line for the outrageously expensive Christmas ornaments and then they stand in line again to get them personalized. I love them. I love them. I love them! I figure $15 a year for pure enjoyment is not too bad. This one is from the year we left South Carolina. We usually try to get a "family" of something - this year it was cute Christmas frogs. It's a tradition that I look forward to every year. I know - so silly.



This is probably my most favorite decoration of all time. When John and I were engaged we were both terribly, terribly poor. For a gift - John gave me a dozen roses - made out of red plastic spoons that he melted the tips of and strung together with wire. He even put rose scent in them (and it smelled like a grandma for years!). I loved these sweet roses from the time he gave them to me and I turned them into a wreath on our first Christmas as a married family. I've changed the ribbon a few times, but the wreath has pretty much remained the same. The roses are showing their age (This is their 12th Christmas on this earth) but I adore putting up this wreath and remembering.



When I was in the fifth grade, a pretty intuitive teacher gave me and several other girls in her class a crossstitch project. She had several Christmassy patterns and I'm pretty sure I made them all. I spent many a recess hanging out on a chair doing my needlepoint and I had three samplers to give away for Christmas. I chose to give one to my Great-grandma Nanny, My grandma Livingston and Grandma Merry(I think?). We don't know where the one that Nanny received went (my mom looked for it after she died) but the one that my grandma Livingston received is still in use every Christmas. She made me this lovely quilted tree as a gift for our first Christmas together. I love that she made a Christmas tree because I stitched her a Christmas tree so long ago.



I know this isn't really Christmassy - but it was one of my Christmas presents and I just love it hanging on our wall. We got fabulous family pictures made and I have already hung a set on a wall upstairs. We got a lot of comments on it at John's work Christmas party - and it simply makes me happy to pass by it every day and see our happy family.


The best Christmas adornment has to be my little angel. Do you recognize the dress?(If there is re-gifting, is there also re-costuming?). For her kindergarten program, she had to have a white dress, wings and a halo so that she could be one of the cute angels. All I had to do was shorten her bride's dress and make some orange fairy wings white with the aid of some white knee-highs and glitter paint. She really is a great decoration! You can also see the color of the wall behind her - doesn't it look fantastic! Oh - you're still looking at Annie and not the paint? I don't blame you!