The History Behind Our Christmas Tree

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree that I took this morning. (It's kind of dark.) I've seen a lot of trees that are beautiful works of art. That is not the case with our tree, but I love our tree because our tree has lots of memories wrapped up in it. Our tree has soul! That's because every ornament on our tree is unique and many of them represent a certain year in the life of our family. When Frank and I got married, we decided to get one new ornament for our Christmas tree each year. We tried to find an ornament that would represent an event from that year or something important that had happened to us. In some cases, our year's ornament was something I made myself or else an ornament that was given to us. A few ornaments even came from before we got married. Here is the first one:

I got this ornament at Christmas in 1989 while I was on my mission, serving in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is a representation of a "Moravian star". I had never heard of the Moravian church before coming to Winston-Salem, but there are many members of this church in that area. Many Moravians hang a white, lighted version of this star over their front doors.

I got this ornament at a gift shop in Brevard, North Carolina in December 1990 while I was still on my mission. I thought it was beautiful, and I also liked that it had the cardinal on it, which is the North Carolina state bird. It's nice to have an ornament from Brevard because Frank and I met in Brevard. (The next month, actually--in January 1991.)

I don't have an ornament from 1991, but in 1992 we started our "yearly ornament" tradition in earnest. Of course, this year we had to have an ornament for "Our First Christmas Together" since we got married in 1992. My mother in law got this ornament for us.

We bought our first car in 1993, so our ornament for this year is a car. (Up until then, we were driving cars that belonged to my parents--a silver VW Rabbit and a tan Ford Astro. They were very generous to let us use their cars! I don't know what we would have done without them.) Our first car was not a 1959 sky blue Thunderbird, but it was blue--a 1989 Hyundai Sonata. It was a great car!

I made this ornament in 1994 out of wooden beads. This was also the year we became parents! Pretty momentous, but we didn't find an ornament to represent that. We did add two "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments to our tree that year, but they belong to Scott, not to us.

I made this icicle ornament out of beads the Christmas of 1995. It was fairly simple to make and turned out pretty (it's kind of washed out in the photo). I also made a bell out of beads this year. It was much more complicated than the icicle and turned out beautiful, but unfortunately, it broke several years later and I haven't been able to figure out how to put it back together. I still have it though--I can't bear to part with it because it took so much effort to make!

Tanner joined our family in 1996. He also had a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament. We took a vacation to Washington / Oregon / Idaho this year, but we forgot to get an ornament so the only ornament we added to our tree this year was the gingerbread boy shown above, which was given to us by a neighbor. Sorry, that is not a very good picture!

In 1997, we moved from Utah to New York state. This ornament represents the traditionally harsh winters of western New York, although actually the winter we spent in New York wasn't too bad. We've had more snow in Maryland than we had in New York that year. Frank was very disappointed!

The Christmas we were in New York, I was invited to an ornament exchange party by one of the women in the Fayette Ward. This party had become a tradition in that area; I think it is nice that they invited me, a newcomer. The rule was that the ornaments had to be homemade. There were about 14 people at the party so I have several beautiful hand made ornaments on our tree from that year. I love hanging them up because they remind me of the many wonderful friends I made during the time we lived in New York. The clothespin reindeer above is the ornament I chose to make for the exchange--I had a few left over.

In 1998, we visited New York City (Erick & his family came with us) and saw the Statue of Liberty, so our ornament came from there this year.

I also made this ribbon ball ornament in 1998. I still remember making it because I was very pregnant with Jared at the time and I remember my back was hurting and I was very uncomfortable! But the end result was worth it, I thought.

Our ornament for 1999 was this Delaware Quarter ornament. That's because we lived in Delaware the whole year in 1999. (Moved there in October 1998 and moved away in March 2000.) This ornament is one of Jared's favorites because he was born in Delaware.

We purchased our first house in 2000 when we moved to Maryland, so our ornament for this year is a house. I couldn't find a house that looks like our townhouse, but I thought this little house was cute.

The year 2001 was our first whole year living in Frederick, Maryland so I purchased this "Clustered Spires" ornament. Historic downtown Frederick has many beautiful old churches and the skyline really does look like the one portrayed in this ornament. The phrase "Clustered Spires" comes from the poem "Barbara Fritchie" by John Greenleaf Whittier: "Up from the meadows rich with corn, / Clear in the cool September morn, / The clustered spires of Frederick stand / Green-walled by the hills of Maryland..." Look it up and read it! It's about a legendary event that happened in Frederick during the Civil War.

We took a crazy weekend trip to Nauvoo, Illinois in the spring of 2002 so that we could attend the openhouse for the newly rebuilt Nauvoo temple. I wanted the boys to be able to see the inside of a temple and this particular temple was very special, of course. I was thrilled when my parents sent us this ornament for Christmas--a perfect reminder of something important we did in 2002.

We took a trip to New England in 2003 to visit Hans in Boston. We also visited Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont as well as driving through Connecticut and Rhode Island. We visited many interesting places including the Joseph Smith birthplace and the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory (both in Vermont), which is where we got this ornament. It reminds us of this special trip.

My Mom & Dad came to visit us in 2004. One of the places we visited was Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, near Richmond, Virginia. We got this ornament there.

We visited Utah in 2005, but didn't get an ornament there. However, a friend gave us this ornament when she visited Philadelphia. We watched her three boys for a few days so that she could take this trip with her husband.

In 2006, we took the boys up to the Palmyra New York area and visited all the church historical sites up there. Although we used to live in this area, we wanted to go again because Jared had never been there and the older boys were too young to remember most of those places. We also loved seeing the Palmyra Temple, which was built after we moved away. We got this Sacred Grove ornament to remember our visit to the area. I like the fact that this ornament represents a miracle, also because we found out we were expecting Seth this year, and that was a miracle too!

Seth joined our family in 2007, so we weren't able to take a vacation this year. However, in November we visited nearby Washington DC and took a tour of the Capitol Building--one of the things we had not done in DC yet.

We visited Frank's family in North Carolina during the summer of 2008. One of the things we did while we were there is we camped for a couple of days. I couldn't find an ornament representing camping, so I got this photo ornament and put in a picture of the boys taken in front of our little cabin.

We have two ornaments for 2009. The first one has a photo of Snickers, because he joined our family in January 2009, when he was 6 weeks old.

We also visited Hans and Griffin in the Boston area in August of 2009. One of the things we did while we were there is to visit the Minute Man National Historical Park near Concord. We got this ornament there.

We had a wonderful family reunion in Utah in June 2010. We did a lot of fun things while we were in Utah; one of them was to visit the BYU campus (old stomping grounds for Frank & I). We got this ornament to represent our trip to Utah.

That brings us to this year, 2011! Our ornament this year is very special. We were not able to go on a vacation this year and when I thought back over this year I was kind of stumped about what to do for an ornament. The most significant thing that happened to us this year was we were unemployed for 4 months but what kind of an ornament could represent that? (And who wants to commemorate unemployment anyway?) Then I saw this watering can ornament at the store and this phrase from Malachi 3:10 popped into my head: "...and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." What a perfect thing to remember about this year...that in spite of unemployment, we were incredibly blessed that we never were in want in any way. It was truly a miracle and I feel so grateful every time I think about it. This is what I want to remember about this year...and never forget! So I bought the watering can, created a label with the words from Malachi on it, and added a Christmas pick to make it look more "Christmas-y".

So there you have it! We have many other ornaments that have been given to us over the years to round out our tree. Each of the boys also has an ornament for each year of his life, given to him by Grandma & Grandpa Pew. There are stories behind many of those, as well. Our tree is not a color-coordinated work of beauty, but it is a hodgepodge of family memories, and that's why I love it!