I was thinking as I grow older I might forget the story behind the ornaments...plus what a fun way to document how important some of the ornaments on the tree are...and what they mean to me. This will be a brief posting about some of my favorite ornaments with the idea that each year I will focus on different ornaments...some day I will have them all logged! (OK...so maybe this is a bit dorky...but I'm sentimental, what can I say).
A: Positano Bling: This is an ornament hubby and I bought in Positano at a cute shop overlooking the water along the amalfi coast, on our honeymoon in September 2010....it brings up wonderful memories of our romantic journey.
B: Family Bells: This bell is also a musical ornament playing a lovely melody....this is exactly why I'm writing a brief blurb about my favorite ornaments....because I'm already forgetting the full story of this ornament. I know my mom gifted this ornament to me a few yours ago, but I believe it may have originally been rescued and loved by her mom, Grandma Margot, and given to me as they both know how in love I am with unique ornaments. If that's not the exact story...as Grandma Margot, would say, it's my story and I'm stickin to it.
C: Homemade Grandma: My lovely Grandma B, who spent probably countless hours trying to get me (a very uncrafty and to left thumbs child) to make crafts...and she successfully taught me to cross stitch....made me a whole cute tin full of ornaments like this adorable Santa. It means so much to me when I look at the tree and see her hard work in cutie-pie ornaments staring back at me with her love.
D: Christkindlmarket: For years I would make an annual trip to the Chicago Christkindlmarket, as it reminded me of my time spent in Germany during high school, sipping on gluhwein out of a boot mug and waiting in enormous lines for some yummy German chocolate favorites....the other specialty shop they had at this market was a glass blowing shop where you could watch ornaments being handmade/blown....this beautiful blue star is from one of these ubercold nights sipping wine watching the glassblowers....as it dangles on the tree it brings me back to Germany and Chicago.
Well....that's my walk down Christmas Memory Lane for this year! Stay tuned for next year's Ornament feature.
After reading this post my mom emailed me with all of the details about the bell...so it's etched in our family history here it is....
ReplyDelete"You got the bell story basically correct, except there's a bit more to it. Grandma brought the bell to the store with a price tag on it. It sat in the store for months on a shelf near the front dest (I wanted to keep an eye on it). It was looked at by customers often, but never sold. Every time someone looked at it, and didn't buy it, I was relieved. One day I got to looking closer at it, and realized it was musical - that's when I thought, OH, how unusual & I thought this bell deserves a special home. "
Thanks mom for thinking of me!