Friday's FIVE!

The Magic Elf!!!

First Christmas Shoes

Baby's First Christmas

From my childhood Christmas Tree

Bruce's First ornaments

Katie, Phil, Tyler and Trevor... and Betsy and Debbie gathered with Bruce and I this weekend... for an evening of laughing and Holiday cheer. We had a wonderful time together eating snacks and drinking Asti and Beer... and decorating the tree together. It is the first time since Christmas of 2001 that the girls have helped decorate the tree - and we had so much fun looking at all of the ornaments and remembering the special events or memory that each ornament holds. Our tree is full of memento's - items from vacations and special events. The tree has Baby shoes, the pin to my first sailboat, handmade ornaments and school and sunday school projects, items from vacations and travels ... if it is a trinket - and it is special to me....it usually goes on our Christmas tree. This weeks Friday FIVE! is a tribute to five of my FAVORITE ornaments that are on the tree -

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1. The Magic Elf - This was on my mothers Christmas Tree when she was a child. It is kept in a special glass case when it is not on the tree. It is a magic elf...that watches all children and reports to Santa Claus... the elf comes to life when he is placed on the tree... "tinkle, tinkle, tinkle ...IT's MAGIC".... The elf is always the last ornament to be placed on the tree...and the story is told while sitting around the tree every year. My adult daughters humored me... with their spouses this weekend...and let me tell the story the of the 'Magic Elf' once again. We laughed and laughed and they told stories of the times that they would be arguing in the living room - in front of the Christmas tree... and they would suddenly stop and say... "Wait, we better take this argument to the dining room because we don't want the magic elf to 'see' us fight"... It's a fun tradition...

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2. Baby's First Christmas Shoes - I have both of the girls first Christmas Shoes tied with red ribbons on the tree. Katie's are white patent leather and Betsy's are black patent leather and they were both bought at 'Resnecks' in downtown Marion.

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3. Baby's First Christmas - that carefully hold newborn photos of the girls. Tyler was especially tickled to look at those photos and compare them to his new brother. He laughed and teased his mother and his aunt about their 'chubby' cheeks.

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4. Glitter Bird - This is an ornment that was on my childhood Christmas tree - we had several of them and they were purchased at the 'Ayres Glittershop' in Downtown Indianapolis. I loved these birds when I was a little a girl - and I love that I still have one on my tree.

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5. Bruce's First Ornament - The first Christmas Bruce and I spent together was 2001 - it was the Christmas we became engaged. It was an exciting Christmas - but the transitions were difficult for all of us. I felt bad for Bruce because the Christmas tree was full of memories... of our family....he didn't have any ornaments on the tree. We remedied that by getting him a 'personalized' snowman and bicycle ornament for the tree. Eight Christmases later, and now he also has eight years of memories on the tree ... including a Hilly Hundred wristband, paper umbrellas from our wedding in Key West, a Fishing boat from Matlacha - and many other mementos from our travels.

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Honorable Mention -

"The Heavenly Host' ... the top of our tree doesn't have a single angel ... there are many angels on our tree and they all gather at the top ... the last three angels to go on the tree belong to Katie, Betsy and me. Katie's is a handmade angel ornament from a Church Bazaar, Betsy's is from her babyshower flower arrangement and mine is another ornament that was on my childhood tree - it is a little angel with a wax head that was 'my' angel as a child - and it was also an Ayres Glittershop purchase.

Our Christmas tree holds many, many memories...and many, many ornaments... and while it isn't a 'designer' tree or a 'theme' tree... and the ornaments aren't all perfect, store bought treasures....but home-made items, mementos and trinkets that mean something to all of us. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful tree in the whole world!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL!!!!