Christmas Decor part 2

I love my ornaments and wanted to do a post on the story behind them. Before I start I wanted to let you know how I acquired most of these. As I was growing up, my mom gave us three kids an ornament every year. Now as an 8, 9, 10, etc year old it was the most boring present under the tree. I thought "great? How am I going to play with this." It also continued through high (my selfish thoughts..I mean) Then after college, when I got my first home (rental house that is), and I bought a tree....my mom brought my box of ornaments over to put on my tree. I then realized how happy I was that I got those ornaments every year because now I have a tree full of wonderful expensive ornaments instead of crappy cheap ones that I ran to the dollar store to get to fill a tree. I now feel like complete sh*t (pardon) that I was so selfish growing up over this (now, I never told my mom this...I just thought it) I am now so grateful that she did this and I will do the same for my children. I have a tree full of wonderful Hallmark, Bergner's, Macy's, etc ornaments instead of dollar-store plastic ones:





This is a polar bear shopper (hehe) notice the purse and gift (if you can it is blurry) I got this one in high school from my mom when my shopping addiction started! (Hallmark)


This one I got from my husband's uncle. He does mission trips every year and this ornament came from Jerusalem. I believe it was made out of olive tree wood. I could be wrong on that...but it is for sure from Jerusalem. You might not see the carving real well, but it is the manager with Mary kneeling at the side.

This is one from my mom from when I was a cheerleader...it is a girl mouse sitting on top of a locker in a cheerleader outfit and pom poms. It is Hallmark.


This is a teacher ornament that my mom gave me when I graduate with my Bachlor's in Elementary Ed. It is a bag full of notebooks, rulers, scissors, pencils, etc, etc. There is also a saying on the side about how teacher's are inspirational. (Hallmark Ornament)



This is a little Mouse fishing from a Popsicle. I got this when I was younger. (Hallmark)



This one came from Bergner's and it is by far the most breakable. The hat and scarves and letters are fuzzy.


This one is from last year. (From Macy's) the pic does not do it justice. It is beautiful and sparkly.


This one I love because my name is the bottom of the snowman. I forgot to mention in the opening of this post....that MOST of my ornaments from my childhood are personalized. This is the only one of posted to this post....because I have so many that I needed to narrow it down, but MOST are personalized. I had to mention this for one of the following ornaments.





Ok, this is why I had to mention that most are personalized. Because MOST are personalized my tree is full of ornaments that have MELISSA written on them. Well two years ago my husband made a quiet comment on how the tree says Melissa all over it. (He might of felt that he wasn't represented. ) So last year (I never found a place to personalize it) but I bought him this one. It is a UofI basketball ornament (his favorite college basketball team) so this one is his.




This one I bought at a garage sale this summer for $.50. There is glitter on it, but you can't tell from the picture. It is also the biggest one on the tree. It is a real bell so if you shake it, it jingles.


This is my favorite. I bought it myself. It is tinkerbell and it is a Hallmark ornament.