Our Christmas Tradition

I saved this picture for a post of its own. This is Camden putting up the first ornament - "his" 2008 ornament. (Normally my Kristy Yamaguchi ornament is first, but I gave it up to Camden this year...)

When I moved out on my own, I realized I didn't really have my own set of ornaments. I had some hand-me-downs that were given to me (meaning ones that were not really wanted by the giver) and I got to buy some. I appreciated what I had (hey - it was better than nothing! and they were given to me), but I remember having a tree full (or not-so-full, I should say) or ornaments I wasn't crazy about for a while and thinking that I would start a tradition that would leave my children with their own "starter" set of ornaments when they moved out - ornaments all their own, ornaments that had special meaning to them.

So, each year, Camden gets to pick out "his ornament." He chooses based on whatever his interest is at the time, and I write his initials and the year in a hidden area. We have quite a few Spider Man ornaments, a soccer one from last year, and this year, he picked out a Star Wars one (that makes noise, of course...). When he moves out, all of these ornaments go with him.

Now that Aiden is here, we get to start the tradition with him. I'm sure that my now full-of-ornaments tree will soon start to have too many ornaments (especially when we add the next baby, huh?!), but what fun that will be! Camden really enjoyed getting out all of "his" ornaments this year, seeing which ones were from each year, and counting them to make sure there was one for each year since he was born. He doesn't yet understand why it means so much to me or how much it (hopefully!) will mean to him when he moves out on his own, but it still is such a big deal to him. He loves picking out his own ornament each year - all on his own (no matter what we think, we don't get to tell him he can't get it b/c we don't like it - it's all about him!). It's become a tradition that we all really enjoy and look forward to each year.