Creating a Christmas Memory Tree

While growing up, in my family, we each got an ornament every year through at least college, perhaps through graduate school, I cannot quite remember. I have started the same tradition in our family, creating a family memory tree — a live, living scrapbook. I love documenting our family in photographs, and I love the idea of documenting our life on our tree, creating lasting memories. Long before Alex was born, I have been collecting unique ornaments from the places we have traveled, while also just coming across unique ornaments over the years.

Since Alex was born, I have four types of ornaments I get each year for our Christmas tree: (1) one for Alex, and I try to get one with a date on it, marking each year; (2) one for our family, and I also try to get one with a date located on it; (3) one for Victory; and (4) one photo ornament of the girls together, usually with Santa, but a Santa visit is not happening this year, so I have a photo ornament of the girls together. It is actually a lot of fun, and there are so many places online to get unique ornaments. It does not take too much effort, but it is well worth the effort, for years to come, in my opinion. I usually get our ornaments in the fall each year, commemorating that year.

It is a fun endeavor, and I try to get ornaments that represent a theme for that year, if possible. This year, we got a personalized ornament of Alex swimming, since she really loved swimming this year; a personalized COVID-19 family ornament; a glass sheltie ornament for Victory; and a photo ornament of the girls together, all pictured below.

Alex is beginning to understand the concept of Christmas, and she loves doing the Advent calendar with Victory each evening; she really enjoyed helping us decorate our tree, and we got a larger tree this year, compared to previous Christmas trees; and it will be fun for Alex to pick out her own ornaments, as she grows older, which she will have to share with her kids someday. Most of all, it will be fun, for years to come, to pull out the ornaments, reminisce, and decorate our family tree, containing so many memories!

And, our little loves by our Christmas tree this year.

There has been so much change for Alex in a relatively short period of time — five months; seventeen months; and almost twenty-nine months, pictured below!