Hanging On By a Thread

My memories are hanging on by a thread ... all over my Christmas tree. Today, this ornament will be making its way via U.S. Postal Service toward a Topeka Christmas tree. Each Christmas, my parents picked out a special ornament for each of their seven grandchildren. This year, it's my turn to continue the tradition with Kinley.

As the grandchildren got older, the ornaments reflected their interests. Jill's later ornaments included a shopping bag and a phone. Brent got a pickup ornament the year he bought his own pickup, and he had several Chiefs ornaments. A K-State cheerleader and a K-State football player were nestled in tissue paper one year, then hung proudly on the Christmas tree.

My parents gifted the ornaments until each grandchild graduated from high school. The Christmas after Jill was at Vanderbilt completing her dietetics internship, I packaged all her ornaments in a plastic tub. It made me a little sad to segregate the bear sledding on the Crayon box and all the other decorations that had hung from our family tree for so long. But it also gave her a great foundation of ornaments to begin decorating her own Christmas tree.

I've always collected my own Christmas ornaments, too. As I looked at Kinley's first photo ornament, I compared it to the one that shows her Mommy's debut Christmas, when she was only 3 months old. (Of course, I bought my own ornament so that I could have one of Kinley's first Christmas hanging on my tree, too.)

Jill - 1985 - 1st photo ornament

Now that Brent is done with school, I'll box up his ornaments from Grandma and Grandpa. But, for this year, I'm enjoying them one last time.

This was Brent's first ornament from Grandma and Grandpa.

And here's mine, showing Brent's 6-month photo on his very first Christmas in 1988. Each year, when I took Jill and Brent to Sears for their photos, I purchased a Christmas ornament along with the 5 X 7s and the 8 X 10s. And, as I decorate my Christmas tree each year, I believe it was money well spent. They are some of my favorite ornaments because they are like a scrapbook of my kids' lives - only better, since I was not so great at scrapbooking.

2009 - Randy's & Jill's Father-Daughter dance at her wedding - another all-time favorite

Interspersed with those Sears ornaments are photo ornaments from other life events - Jill and Brent on a spring break trip to Denver or Jill laughing and dancing with her Dad at her wedding.

The oldest ornament on my tree is one my Grandma Leonard made when I was a little girl. This little choir boy has lost his hanger thread, but I always nestle him among the branches in a prominent place so I can see him and remember.

Yes, my memories are hanging on by a thread ... and that's a very good thing.