In the past week, our family has decorated four Christmas trees: a larger tree filled with family ornaments; a mini tree with star ornaments; a mini tree with pearl ornaments; and a mini tree with fox ornaments.
The mini trees represent the little girls and pup in our family.
All of this started in 2009, the year Zack and I got married and shortly thereafter, adopted our goofy dog Zuzu. We went to Bronner’s in Frankenmuth and looked for an ornament to commemorate Zuzu’s first Christmas with us. They have a million ornaments, and plenty dedicated to specific dog breeds, but none of them looked like our goofy dog. Finally, we spotted a fox ornament that looked a lot like her.
We’ve been collecting fox ornaments ever since. Amazingly, there are a lot of them to be found out there. After a couple years, we had enough of them to place them on two small trees that flanked our fireplace. And after eight years, the collection has grown to nearly 50 foxes.
Now, Zuzu has her own mini tree:
When we were expecting Stella in March 2013, my family threw us a baby shower that January. I had an idea that if the guests wanted, they could bring a star ornament in honor of her name to be used on her own Christmas tree.
We ended up with several beautiful star ornaments of all different types. And for the last several Christmases, we’ve decorated Stella’s star tree:
And finally, with our Margot due in late December of last year, we continued the tradition and asked for pearl ornaments in honor of her name to go on her very own Christmas tree. Pearl-themed ornaments proved to be a bit of a challenge compared to stars, but our family found a beautiful array of ornaments featuring pearls.
Even though Margot missed her own first Christmas by arriving on New Year’s Day, I still decorated the tree for her last year. We also had her stocking ready and a Baby’s First Christmas ornament in place, but instead of a baby photo inside, there’s a sonogram picture.
Now, Margot’s pearl tree is a part of our tradition:
Themed trees are so much fun, with their endless options and opportunities for creativity. I’d love to have a Michigan State-themed tree one day, but I think Zack might think five trees is a little nuts.
It brings me so much joy to decorate our Christmas trees each year. There’s often an ornament or two that I’ve forgotten about, and one glance brings a flood of memories about where and who they came from.
I’m looking forward to the girls being able to understand how special their trees and ornaments are, that they were loved by so many even before they were born.
Family, friends, and traditions. That’s what Christmas means to me my love.