I seem to have made little sections amongst all the Christmas ornaments along the lines of meaning and purpose this year. As my husband and I took everything out of the attic, for reasons not known to me, we did not schedule a date to put everything up. We usually do it on a Saturday with some great pick-up food like brie, and fresh nuts, fabulous pate, and a great red wine. It's a special time my husband and I love to share with each other.
This year, I found myself laying everything out on several tables, separating the kid things, from romantic ornaments, from baby memorability, and then finally I realized we had another special kind of ornament.
We hadn't ever really been purposeful about collecting them or doing one each year, but I found that we had a family personalized Christmas ornaments for nearly every year since my first baby was born. There are family ornaments with just the three of us -- 2 of them to be exact. Then, we had our son. We missed a year, but then we have 4 family Christmas ornaments with the 4 of us. And then we have 1 Christmas family ornament with the 5 of us. Then 2 years passed and we forgot, I guess.
So, I've made a resolution. I found a great place to fill in the missing years. I purchased an ornament for our family for each of the years we were missing them. Yes, I back dated them. So what. I love them, and now we have a complete set for every year of our family life with kids.
So, this is all to say, consider celebrating the growth and life your and your spouse's special times with a family Christmas ornament. You can even personalize them so everyone's name is memorialized and dated. I went back and wrote little notes about the special things that happened each year on the back of those ornaments. I know that it'll be a lot of fun to read in the years to come.