Hellobee

I love Christmastime! And while some might argue that the most wonderful time of the year hasn’t quite arrived yet, our tree is up and ready! One of the reasons I was so looking forward to setting up our tree was because I was eager to add our annual ornaments and select new ones for this year. This annual tradition started the first Christmas Mr. Cowboy and I were married. We bought an ornament of a bride and groom and added it to our tree along with all the other sparkly and shiny “normal” ornaments. The year after that, we bought an ornament of a little house, signifying the first home we bought. Every year after that, we added a new ornament that symbolized something special from that year. I wrote the year on each ornament and our favorite part of decorating for Christmas quickly became pulling out these special ornaments and remembering each special year.

Our ornaments tell the story of our family…from the year of our wedding, to the addition of our sweet dog, to our first trip to New York City as a family of 3, we love the that you can see the highlights from our years together on our tree. The year Lil’ CB came home, our ornament was a family photo of the three of us. And this year, rightfully so, our ornament is a photo of our new family of four.

Once Lil’ CB was home, we began buying ornaments for him, too — choosing something that was especially memorable from that year for him or a milestone that he achieved. Initially, Mr. Cowboy and I chose his ornaments, but once he turned 4, he began very proudly choosing his own, and he’s got a nice little collection built up so far:

For 2010, his first Christmas home, we chose a Superman Santa we found at a boutique in Seoul. More than anything, that highlights our trip to Korea that December to finally bring Lil’ CB home! For the following year, 2011, Lil’ CB has a Green Bay Packers ornament, symbolizing the first time he saw them win the Super Bowl (I’ll give you one guess as to who chose that one!), and for 2012, we chose a pencil to represent the year he started preschool. At Christmas 2013, Lil’ CB had recently turned 4 and was incredibly proud of his two-wheel bike riding skills he had perfected that summer, so we bought a bicycle ornament for him. In 2014, Lil’ CB wanted to add a soccer ball to his ornament collection because that was the year first started playing in a recreational soccer league. For this year, I suggested perhaps getting a tooth ornament to symbolize all the teeth his lost (6!), or a book ornament to symbolize the fact that he learned to read this year. He declined those suggestions and chose instead, a basketball, because, you guessed it, this was the year when he started playing in a basketball league.

For Lil’ CG, we began adding her ornaments to the tree last year. When we were in Korea to bring home Lil’ CB in 2010, I picked up a little cellphone charm of a teddy bear in a girl’s hanbok (Korean traditional dress) because I knew that one day we would adopt a little girl and I thought this would be a perfect first ornament for her. We kept it tucked away for years and then last year, after we received Lil’ CG’s referral in January 2014, we finally added it to the tree. This year, I chose an airplane ornament for her, symbolizing her long trip home.

Every year, it is so special to unwrap these ornaments and relive our years and special moments together. My hope is that this tradition will continue for all our years to come and that our Christmas trees will be filled with ornaments showing important and happy moments in our lives…a sort of botanical timeline of sorts. My other hope is that when Lil’ CB and Lil’ CG have grown up and moved out of the house , I can pack up their ornaments and send them off with them, and that their special ornaments from their childhoods and adolescent years will become the first ornaments on their grown-up trees…

What special decorating traditions does your family have?