I thought I'd give you a little taste of Faris holiday tradition over the next few days. These are the things I look forward to when the air turns crisp and smells like snow. (I say "smells" because we rarely get snow in Memphis until one random day in March, usually.)
GRANDMA BOB'S HOUSE ORNAMENTS
(Not until recently did I stop to think it was odd to have a grandmother named "Grandma Bob." This name came about because my grandfather had a Grandpa Bob that he adored, and therefore when he became a grandparent he requested that he and his wife be called "Grandma & Grandpa Bob." So there ya go.)
Ever since I was born, I have received ornaments from family members. (I believe one or two of them owned Hallmark stores when I was younger, and therefore the Hallmark ornaments became a gift tradition.) For my first Christmas in 1980, Grandma Bob sent me the first ornament in a new series that was beginning that year--a little pink Victorian house. It fit in the palm of my hand, and if you turned it over, the backside was open just like a dollhouse, and you could see the little furniture and Christmas decorations. Obviously in 1980 I didn't care much about receiving this ornament. But over the next decade, I loved playing with these little house ornaments and I always looked forward to seeing what the next one in the series would look like. A library, a fire station, a candy shoppe...all with little green Christmas trees decorating their interiors.
As I grew older, Grandma kept asking if I still wanted to receive the ornaments as my Christmas gift. When I was 21, she even wrote me a note and told me she had expected the series to end by then and she'd be more than happy to send me something else if I wished. But those little house ornaments were still my favorite, and I kept requesting them. Every year when my family put up the tree and the boxes of ornaments were brought down from the attic, I looked forward to seeing those sentimental relics of my childhood.
Grandma Bob passed away the day Nick and I got engaged, in October 2005. That Christmas, the new house ornament was still there waiting to be unwrapped. My mother picked up the tradition, and I still receive the ornaments as a gift.
Eventually my box of ornaments made it over to Memphis from my parents' home. (As you might recall from the picture to the left, we were without ornaments for our first married Christmas and had to use our Save the Date cards!)
I now have 31 house ornaments (there was an extra ornament made on the 25th anniversary) and they alone have filled our tree! I look forward to letting my children play with them as they grow up...and one day when the set is complete, perhaps I'll set them to a collector and use the money for my kids' college tuition. :) (Perhaps oui, perhaps non!)
PS: On a more eccentric but no less sentimental note, this is my favorite ornament:
Miss Piggy dressed as an angel was given to me as a child, and she still has the same heavenly smell of vanilla as she did the day I opened her box for the first time. I was a big Miss Piggy fan as a child (obscure fact), and I always insisted on giving her the best spot on the tree--front and center. My younger brother Cody had a matching Kermit the Frog (who was dressed up with skis and a toboggan), and we played the "Hallelujah Chorus" on the record player every year as we placed them together on the tree. I'm weird. I know.
1 comments:
i love the house ornament collection. it's especially wonderful that your grandmother gave them to you all those years and you can pass them along to your children (or another set if you cant bear to part)...
LOVE the traditions we're creating in these first few years of marriage! you've done a wonderful job (not surprising since you like schedules and traditions so much )
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