As a tradition, every year all of us would receive a christmas ornament from my parents. Sometimes they would all be the same, sometimes slightly different but all equally special. Through our dance company, all the girls in the family would also receive a new ornament though an ornament exchange. You can only imagine the number of ornaments I’ve collected over the years and as my mom gave me the box full of mine, I was amazed. Every year we would get out our boxes and put our ornaments on the tree and every New Years day we would carefully wrap our ornaments up in paper and pack them up for the year. This year it was time to decorate our own tree. Trent’s parents were gracious enough to lend us an old tree of theirs and Trent was darling enough to set it up for me. We strung it with lights and yesterday was the day we finally got the ornaments on. There is nothing like a christmas tree to light up a room. I could tell you countless stories about each of my ornaments but here are just a few.
I received this fairy ornament at our annual Children’s Dance Theatre ornament exchange when I was about 1o years old. I remember opening the package up and instantly falling in love with this petite, graceful girl. You can attach her to one of the christmas lights and her wings will glow making her a true fairy of light. My family can attest that every year she went in the same place near the top of the tree and this year is no different.
This cow ornament, besides being cute, holds a very special meaning to Emma and I. When we were sophomores in High School, our sweet friend passed away from cancer. She is one of the most amazing girls I have ever met and she continues to be an example to me of goodness and light. Her favorite animal was cows, she absolutely loved them. So as a reminder to Emma and I of our dear friend, my mom gave us this little cow.
This ornament is one of the many my dad would bring back from his numerous trips around the world. He has been traveling since I was little and he has the best stories. This ornament is a little reminder of the exotic places my dad has seen and just how lucky I am to have such incredible parents.
This last ornament was gifted to me as a baby so it has seen its fair share of christmas trees. I love how it looks way older than 22 years and I love that it was the first of many ornaments to join the collection.
All of us kids have stories connected to our ornaments, (I once took a bite out of Emma’s gingerbread ornament because it smelled good, haha). These ornaments are tradition, they are love, they are memories, they are family.
The Way of the Wards 