Christmas Ornaments

One thing I enjoy collecting, are ornaments for my Christmas tree.  My Christmas decorations became somewhat legendary over the years, because they expanded into every room of each apartment I had.  And I loved it!  I love decorating for Christmas!  I loved that I could walk into any room in the house and see Christmas things.  Snowmen, Santas, Nativities, figurines, artwork on the walls, books, movies, trees, cats in Santa hats, candles to make it smell like Christmas, etc.  I have modern themed things, old-fashioned things, pretty things, simple things, basically a little bit of everything.  But since I moved home three years ago, none of my Christmas things have seen the light of day.  That is, until this year.  :)  This year, I did the decorating in the house...and used all of my own things, rather than mom's.  It was fun to see all of it again.  :)

So today as I began taking down the Christmas tree, I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite ornaments and what they mean to me...

I got this cat ornament my first Christmas with Lincoln.  I figured it looked enough like him, so it became his first ornament in 2007.

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This snowman, a friend of mine (Jean) made for me one year.  She and I worked at the Franklin branch library together.  Sadly, I haven't been good at keeping in touch with her...but I love this snowman she made!    I love handmade things.

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See all the candy canes on the tree?  I made these one year for one of my Christmas parties.  Gave them as parting gifts when people left.  I had a lot of extras, so I kept them to use on my own tree.  This year, Dakota helped me put the tree up, and he was in charge of these candy canes.  I left them exactly where he placed them.  :)

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I have a few of these snowflakes.  I absolutely love them.  I got these when I worked at the Christmas store, in 1996.  At the store, we had themed trees, and one of my favorites was the pearl and gold tree.  In fact, that first Christmas in my very own apartment, all of the decorations I bought were pearl and gold. 

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My little Pillsbury baker ornament.  You can't see it very well in the picture, but he's holding a cookie sheet with cookies on it.  I got this for myself one year, because I had become known for my cookie-baking.  :)

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This little guy originally hung on a suction cup, for a window or mirror.  The cup eventually yellowed and didn't hold Rudolph anymore, so I let him be added into the ornaments.  I have had this since I was a kid, and I think Frieda gave him to me.  He might have just been hers and she let me keep him one year.  ha ha.

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I couldn't get the camera to focus on a clear shot of this one, so this is the best I could get it.  I got this while on vacation in Abbeville, South Carolina.  I can't even think what year it was, though.  Maybe 1998 or 1999?  Anyway, Abbeville is where my Lively ancestors lived before they made the trek to Illinois in 1805.  I love these kind of ornaments, though.  I like to look for them when I go to new places.

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We sold these guys at the store I managed.  There were several styles, but of course my favorite was the one with the guitar.  

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These were Grandma Hawn (Carlisle)'s.  I'm not sure how old they are.  I'm pretty sure the last Christmas tree she had was before I was born.  At least I don't ever remember her having one.  But somehow, these little ornaments survived and eventually found a new home among all of my Christmas decorations.

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This is my Nashville collection.  There's Tennessee on the far left, Grand Ole Opry on top left, Nashville skyline on top right, and the Titans and Predators on the bottom.  I also have a Ryman ornament, but couldn't find it on the tree until after I was done taking pictures.  It's gold like the state ornament and the Opry one.

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I love this one!!  I bought this in Maui, in 2001.  I need to take a Sharpie to her and fill in the "Maui" on her.  This was the first of two trips to Maui, thanks to the company I worked for at the time.  I need to figure out a way to get a free trip back again...  :)

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I picked these up in Las Vegas in 2004.  Same company that sent me to Maui, sent me to Vegas.  :)  I think the manager's meetings were one of the best things about that place.  Well, second to some of the friendships that were made while working there.  Anyway...I love my M&M ornaments!  I have a set of four different colors, and I got them at the M&M store (which is a totally awesome place, by the way).

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Picked this one up in Tempe, Arizona.  Another work trip, but different company from the previous two ornaments.  I only shopped at the airport and hotel gift shop, so there weren't many options for Christmas ornaments...even though it was October when I was there.  But this one suited me fine.  :)

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These are all of my character ornaments.  I like to get ones that are from my childhood.  I haven't bought one in a few years, but there for a while I would buy one new one each year.  Hmm.  I need to check out the after-Christmas sales and see what I can come up with for next year...

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I got these this year, specifically for Dakota.  Surprise, surprise.  Mater and Lightning.  For a while after we put up the tree, any time he'd be at the house, he'd point out these ornaments.  He put one on one side of the tree, and the other on the opposite side.  He had fun going around the tree to look at each of them.  :)

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And finally, this is one that I love because A, it's Mickey Mouse.  And B, Meghann got it for me at Disney World one year.  :)

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It's in storage...

For three years, all of my belongings sat in a storage unit.  Last month, we started bringing things to the house to store...and now it's all been gone through and repacked and stored here, free of charge.  :)

I found all kinds of random things while looking through all of my gazillion "boxes of life".  Some brought smiles, some brought giggles, some things I just had to take a moment and stare at before moving along to the next box.  Some things I remembered, while others I'd completely forgotten about.

One of the first days I spent working on boxes, I had my camera with me.... Surprise!  :)

These are just a few of my boxes of pictures and negatives!

I believe this sat on Grandma's desk when she worked as the secretary at Herrin High School.

HA HA HA!!  Fire it up!  I hated it when they said that.  hee hee...  But I do miss my Shiloh Boys.  Some more than others.  :)

This is a piece of my high school gym floor.  Preston found this somewhere in a pile of junk or something, after my high school was torn down.  He salvaged it (or stole it, ha ha) for me.

From an autograph book I had in grade school.  Mrs. Long was my 4th grade teacher, and one of my most favorite teachers.

Autographs from Mandy (in my class), Jaimee (grew up in church with), and Tawnya (best friend from the neighborhood and same class)

Autograph from Holli...ha ha ha...  :)

This was a different autograph book.  This is from Frieda, my old babysitter.  She was like another grandma-figure to me.

My employee badge from the summer I worked at Opryland.

There is some funny stuff in here...

My electronic fortune cookie!!!  :)  And it still worked, without having to have new batteries.

Then there were some loose pictures I found...all in random boxes, of course.  :)  I don't know why they weren't in the actual photo boxes.  ha ha

Ahhh...Maui.  How I long to see you again!

Robot Preston.

Crazy Preston and Unsuspecting Stacey.

Baby Daphne puppy!!!

My birthday party in 2nd grade, I think.  At McDonald's, where all the cool kids partied.

On a youth trip.  I can't think of where this was...obviously a photo booth somewhere.  I think this was the trip we did to DC.  So maybe this was at Kings Island?

And then I found my Belmont yearbooks...this is from freshman year.  Recognize that guy, anyone?  

1994-1995 Belmont University yearbook, my Freshman year.  Pictured 2nd from left, Brad Paisley.  His last semester was my first semester.

Dakota and Santa 2012

As usual...I am way behind on blogging.  I have several ideas for blogs... I just haven't sat down to put the ideas into words on the screen.  Nothing new there.  :)

So for now...here are some pics of Dakota and Santa.  I decided to go back and pick up the past two years, as well.  Just because I can.  Then maybe...just maybe....getting a quick little blog out there in cyberspace tonight will kick-start me into sitting down and doing a "real" one.  We'll see...

Today's Santa story begins with Dakota being at our house this morning.  By early afternoon, he didn't want to take a nap.  I told him that if he would just lay down and go to sleep for a little while...when he woke up, it would be time to go see Santa!  We'd already picked out what he was going to wear to see Santa (and he was excited about the shirt!).  So he finally agreed, "Es!" (He currently does not pronounce the "y" in "yes".) and laid down and promptly fell asleep.

About an hour and 15 minutes later, I woke him up and got him dressed.  Shortly after that, we were on our way to town to see Mr. Claus!  But first...we listened to a little Santa sing, and then hung out with Frosty for a bit.

"You better watch out...You better not cry..."

Hey Frosty!  How ya been?

Then it was time to go see the big man....and his wife!  This was our first time to meet Mrs. Claus.

Discussing the candy cane Santa gave him.

After hanging out with Santa for a while, Dakota met a Toy Soldier.  He was most impressive, and Dakota was more than happy to pose with him for a picture.

And then we checked out the big tree (and the tile floor, ha ha).  Mickey wanted in on the excitement this time...

And then there's this collage that I put together on a quick creative whim...

Falling for Fall

It's finally Fall!  This is my favorite season.  The falling leaves, the cooler temps (normally, anyway), the smell of the first fire in the fireplace, the smell of burning leaves, that first cup of hot chocolate, wearing longer sleeves and maybe even a jacket....and the anticipation of what comes next.  Winter!  :)

This year is great because my nephew is old enough to appreciate playing in the leaves.  :)  Here are a few pics from this week...

Not sure what he's supposed to do yet...

And...he's off!

Laughing at something Preston was doing...

Having fun!

Only looking at me and smiling because Preston dumped a pile of leaves on my head.  :)

Last weekend, I went for a drive to find some pretty fall-colored trees...  I chose Pope and Hardin County, here in IL.  Almost everything was yellow in this area....and it was absolutely gorgeous!  The colors in the pictures do not really do it justice.

Pope County

Pope County

Hardin County

Hardin County

Hardin County

So now...I'm ready for some SNOW pictures....  :)