Ornaments That Tell Our Story

Can you believe that in one week it will be Christmas Day??? Where has this month gone?

So today I just wanted to share a little bit about our Christmas tree. 

I know there are a lot of Pinterest worthy trees out there and I constantly consider having one that just looks pretty in the future but I couldn't have a Christmas without my ornament collection. Our ornaments tell our story. So I wanted to share a bit about the ornaments we have collected over the last year to add to our tree and why I love collecting ornaments so much.

My mom and dad gave us this Mickey and Minnie wedding ornament for Christmas last year but this is the first year we've had it on the tree. I think it's so cute and as a Disney lover I'm thrilled to have it. We have a few wedding ornaments but this is one of my favorites!

Next up, we collected an ornament from each island we visited on our honeymoon. I have been collecting ornaments on our travels for years (even before I met Tim) so we made sure to find an ornament at each port.

Our ornament from St. Martin, this was a typical ornament we found on all the islands. Although we did try to switch it up a bit and not get the same type everywhere. 

In Antigua we picked this one up. See what I mean with the similarities? Sometimes it was hard to find other ornaments though.

San Juan, Puerto Rico, this one is textured and was clearly hand painted. 

I love this beach chair ornament from St. Thomas. I think it's my favorite one out of all the honeymoon ornaments.

This turtle from St. Lucia is really cute though!

We picked up two "ornaments" in Philadelphia last month. The first isn't technically an ornament but a keychain however we will use it as an ornament to remember our time in Philly. Keep this in mind if you are interested in collecting ornaments but are having trouble finding one in a certain location.

We had no trouble finding an Eagles one for Tim to bring home though! I don't mind because our tree has plenty of Patriots ornaments on it too. Dual alliances in this house.

Rachel and Ant gave us this ornament and it's so sweet to have our First Home ornament! I love how an ornament can mark the importance of a year.

I also picked up a new Harry Potter ornament after Christmas last year. I can't help being a nerd!

Now let's take a look at some of the other significant ornaments on our tree...

Our wedding invitation ornament that I purchased from OurGlassOrnaments on Etsy.

This reindeer came from my trip to France. 

This sweet ornament was carved by Tim's grandpa.

Here is our Disney ornament from our trip back in 2017 (that sounds like a very long time ago..it must be time to go back!)

This is our ornament from our first apartment that I bought from MommyGotTalent on Etsy.

Almost every one of our ornaments tells a story, there are very few that I purchased just because they looked pretty. While I may have one of those Pinterest-worthy trees one day, I promise that somewhere else in my house will be a tree filled with all of my travel ornaments, all of my landmark moments, and of course filled with Disney characters and Harry Potter. 

Side note: How many Belle ornaments can a girl have before she has too many Belle ornaments??

I will keep collecting because although I always talk about decluttering I am truly a collector at heart.

Also, I am thinking that someday I should get either the Disney train or the monorail to go underneath the tree.....

Have a great day everyone :)

Favorite Orrnaments

Happy Monday everyone!

I thought that today I would share some of my favorite ornaments with you. For years I've been collecting ornaments when I travel and getting ornaments when major life events happen. I love that our tree will be a time capsule some day of all of our life events represented through ornaments!

Now these aren't all my ornaments- I have many Disney ornaments from trips in the past and also have homemade ornaments that we've made during family Christmases. I have ornaments from my grandparents Christmas tree that I treasure and we also received a small ornaments Tim's grandfather made. Many ornaments have been given to me as gifts and some are from my tree growing up that my parents have passed down to me. They are all my favorites but here are the ones that have a special occasion or trip attached to them.

In 2013 I took a trip to France with my mom, papa and Vivian and I picked up this small Eiffel Tower ornament to always remember the trip. I loved visiting France and have amazing memories spending time with them.

This ornament represents our first apartment! On the back it says our names as well but I remember being so excited to move into our apartment together that first weekend! I can't believe in May we will have been here three years!

These two ornaments are new this year and I love that we have them to represent our wedding! This year has been wonderful and I never want to forget how much fun we had this year!

This Disney ornament represents our trip to Disney World in 2017. We had the BEST time on our trip! I will forever remember our trip just the two of us especially someday when we go back with kids and it's not as relaxing!!

This cute reindeer is also from my France trip. I believe he was purchased in Avignon but I thought he was adorable and a great reminder of such an amazing trip!

Do you pick up ornaments for major life events/trips?  I recently ordered an ornament that will be made with our wedding invitation so I'm excited to receive that!

Cinnamon Holiday Ornaments

This past weekend Brittni and I spent some time making ornaments for our co-workers. This was a easy gift to hand out to our co-workers since neither of us were sure if people at work exchanged gifts or not. We thought that this would be a cute idea and ended up being relatively easy so I thought I would share what we did in case you are interested in making some ornaments this holiday season!

This is our finished product- don't they look cute?

Brittni had received adorable cookie cutters for her wedding shower- the shapes were perfect for winter. We used the following shapes: reindeer, penguin, fox, bear, owl, rabbit and bird. They were all so cute but the bears and penguins ended up turning out best since they are solid shapes and were easier to remove from the cookie cutters.

We had a little helper with Brittni's three year old niece. She was great at using the rolling pin!

We used one cup of applesauce with a little over a cup of cinnamon. We learned to be very generous with the cinnamon since it helped to keep the dough not as sticky. I dug my hands into the bowl with cinnamon and applesauce and mixed it by hand until is was doughy, Then we made small balls of dough and rolled them out on the table (adding cinnamon as needed) and used cookie cutters to create ornament shapes.

After we had all our ornaments cut out we placed them on parchment paper (which we draped on the cookie trays). We made sure to use a straw to make a hole in each ornaments so we would be able to loop ribbon through it.  Then we baked them in the oven for two hours on 200 degrees.

After two hours we simply pulled them out, looped ribbons through and voila!

Ornaments for everyone!

Have you ever made ornaments? There are so many fun ornament craft projects out there- I would love to make something different next year! =)

Have a great day!