Our Ornament Story

Firefly and I got married the summer of 2006 so this is our fourth Christmas together.  Our first Christmas, we were living with friends of ours and we didn't have a tree.  Our friends had a live tree that lived on the front porch so we didn't really do anything other then just lights.

Before our second Christmas we decided that we didn't want to have a bunch of meaningless ornaments to store every year.  We decided that every year we would each give each other a handmade ornament and those would be the only ornaments on the tree.  The plan at the time was to do this for 10 years (20 ornaments) and then on the 11 year the first two ornaments would be retired.  My thinking on this is so that the tree doesn't get too cluttered and I figured we would have kids bringing home ornaments they made in school by then.  I'm the kind of guy that likes to have a plan even if we never stick to it.  We'll see soon enough how things really turn out.

Below are the ornaments that we have given to each other.  The top ornaments are the ones I gave to Firefly and the bottom ones are the ones she gave to me.

Christmas Two:

Christmas Three:

Christmas Four:

We both bought the ornaments the first year.  We made them the second year. I etched glass and Firefly used clay.  I bought my ornament this year off etsy.com and Flyfly made hers.

It makes me laugh that for the last two years, our ornaments have had the same theme to them. The ornaments are a surprise so everything is done in secret.  The only rules of the game are 1)Don't tell the other person and 2) Hand or homemade. From the get-go, each ornament has come to represent where each of us is in life that year.  The Nurse was because Firefly decided to get a second degree and become a nurse and the bike is because I love bikes and have always wanted a tandem! The giraffes were because we both had baby fever that year and the houses are because of our new home.

I want to say thanks to Megan at Meganelene boutique (etsy.com) for making the house ornament I gave to Firefly this year.  She even volunteered to "Christmas" it up and added our name and year above the house and our house number on the mailbox.  If you are looking for a great (and cheap) handmade ornament for next year (maybe even this year), be sure to check her out!

Our Christmas Tree Hunt

The test all went well...now we wait :)  I now know why people tend to get claustrophobic in the machine... it sure is tight in there! I just kept my eyes shut and tried to take a nap.  It wasn't bad at all really and the tech was really nice and friendly.  She would tell me exactly how long each segment of testing was so you knew how long you had to be still for...she said even moving your eyes could mess up the image scan.  I know people have been complaining about government run health care but I LOVE the care I get at the VA and they are one of the models for the new health care system.

After the eye doc, Firefly and I went on a tree hunting adventure!  We debated for quite some time about if we wanted a tree or not, see Firefly's post, before we finally decided to get a tree cut permit from the forest department. I like this option because it is in a controlled but still wild area (we saw 10 deer) and it helps the forest department thin out trees to help protect against forest fires.

We decided to head to Dog Valley for our adventure which is great because it is only about 15 miles from our house.  Our little Jimmy did really well climbing the mountain to get into the tree cutting area.  We went from 2 wheel drive to 4 wheel to chains but we made it to the top...even if we had passed a group of guys with snowmobiles that didn't think we could do it! We did however decide that next year we are going to go BEFORE there's two feet of snow on the un-plowed road and that we would bring dry clothes to change into after the hunt.  Once we got to the top, we headed off on foot down the mountain, up the mountain, up again, across the ridge, down the mountain, across the road, and then finally down the mountain again.  And then we found the perfect tree!

We cut down the tree and thanked it for letting us cutting it down and for joining our family and for eventually heating our house as fire wood.  It's skinny, full, and funky...its perfect! 


The hardest part was getting the cut tree through the snow covered juniper bush jungle and back up the hill to the road.  This took Firefly up front with the top of the tree and me shoving from the back.  We took it one step and a time and finally made it up...I'd say about 20mins of tree shoving.  We both needed a rest when we got to the top again!

 

I love being married and being part of a great team.  We got the tree up that hill fight free!  We loaded him up and home we went. (Firefly named the tree Richard)

Into the house it came and out came the lights and the ornaments!

Firefly also used the branches we cut off to decorate the mantel