My throat was a bit sore today, so instead of joining my comrades in a caroling gig the large group had scheduled (they can do without me for this!!) I decided today was the day the tree would go up. I did wait until the Hubby went to work though – he gets all huffy when I ask him to haul boxes and then get out of my way.

Our Christmas tree is very special to us. It’s more of a “memory” tree, starting with the first ornament Hubby and I got together, before we were married. It became a tradition for us to get a new ornament every year. If you look hard, you can see that it says “First Christmas Together, 1990”.

Of course, what family tree would be complete without the kids’ handy work on it?

The Teen’s grade 1 Christmas craft (can you tell her teacher was thinking more about retirement…?)

Wee One’s Jr. Kindergarten Christmas craft – the brainchild of a very young, artsy first-time teacher. It’s hands down my favourite… but don’t tell the Teen, ok?

When the Teen was tiny, we decided to introduce a new Christmas Tradition to our family. We made an event out of it, and each year we exchange ornaments with our closest friends. This way, we can celebrate each other, but not be silly about spending so much money every year. It caught on, and let me tell you – it has been absolutely wonderful!

Most of the couples we hang out with really look forward to it every year. They really get into it! Sometimes they establish their own theme…

Hard to see in this picture, but one set of our “Dog People”, Spendy and Crash, like to give us giant bells with characters from the classic Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer movie. You can just make out Rudolph and Clarice on the lower bell, and the Bumble setting the star atop the Christmas tree on the other. It’s one of my favourite Christmas specials to watch with the kids. How did Spendy know??

The other set of “Dog People”, K9 Crazy and her Hubby, K, have started giving us hand crafted ornaments, which I absolutely adore.

Isn’t K9 talented?? She knows I’m all about the bling. How special are these??

Sometimes we have them over for dinner, but the last few years we’ve been getting together for a night out at a restaurant. Our annual “Dog People” get together this year is tomorrow night, in fact.

But that isn’t it! No, we have different sets of friends, that we see at different times, different occasions, etc. So we get to do it all over again with them!

Last year our “BFFs” (the couple we’ve known the longest) gave us this one…

The Teen was hard into penguins (still is) and it really tickled them when they found it. See what I mean? Our simple tradition has spread the joy around! It is just plain fun to hunt for “just the right ornament” for everyone. To make it that much more difficult interesting, we set a minuscule limit of $10, and the second rule is that it absolutely must MEAN something. It can’t just be some random ornament you grab in passing at Walmart. It’s FUN.

Of course, we have other things on the tree, too. This is a work in progress, and it’s going to take the rest of our lives, and our kids’ lives to “finish” the tree with only gifted ornaments. Meaning of course, that it will never be finished. So yeah, we have other stuff on there too. Soooo many things with our names on them, like these…

…and these…

I bet they’re on your tree too, unless your parents saw fit to name you something you will never, ever find on an ornament or pen, or anything else for that matter! ;)

I love hand made stuff, so along with K9 Crazy’s gorgeous offerings, I have a number of these that I made once upon a time…

and of course, more bling…

…more penguins…

And then this ornament that I just had to buy for the Teen last year…