Ornaments for 2012 - memories

Growing up my parents had a tradition of giving us a new ornament each year.  As we grew older, it became an activity we did during the month of December to go and pick out our ornament for the year.  When we left home when we got married, we were able to take our ornaments with us to decorate our own tree with our new family.

I have done the same tradition with my own kids.  At first I started letting them pick their own ornament.  One year Jaley picked a long dangley red jeweled ornament, Julia picked a pink high heeled shoe and Jenna a pink rose.  I decided that I needed to have a little more control.  I started picking ornaments that represented a "memory" from that year.  Now it ends up being "memories" because I can't settle on one.  I collect items throughout the year to turn into ornaments ... you will understand as you read the post.  Anything can be made into an ornament!  You just have to be creative sometimes!

Oh, and to this day, the red dangley ornament is a favorite of Jaley's!  She loves shiny things.  She be-dazzles everything she can!

I have been journaling about their yearly ornaments over the past several years.  I need to do the younger years.  It is fun to look back and see what happened during the year.

Here are the memory ornaments for this year

 Kendall's ornaments:
A ball ornament of Julia and Jared (not pictured), swimming ornament with "Most Improved Swimmer" written on it.  Four dinosaurs and one mammoth  (Kendall LOVES dinosaurs .... he can name them, give you interesting facts about them, etc).  Salt Lake City temple

 Kerst's ornaments:
  Scout (Tenderfoot ... May, Second Class Scout .... October).  Turtle (his favorite animal), temple, Piano (taking piano lessons) and a swimming ornament for summer swim team.

 Jaley's ornaments:
  Orange Marshmallow guy with gun (for going to a shooting range with Grandpa P ... SHE LOVED IT!).  Girl with braces (got them on in May).  Shoe .  Hiking girl (4th year girl's camp 5 day 25 mile backpacking trip).  Piano (taking piano lessons),   Lifeguard ornament (Jaley worked as a lifeguard full time this summer), Elephant (Jaley's favorite animal), temple.

Jenna's ornaments:
MY FAVORITE .... Ball ornament with pieces of the car and tree from her accident on March 23, 2012.  Thank you to my dear friend, Beautiful aka Wendi, for gathering these items for me!  Wheelchair (to represent the 3 months Jenna spent in a wheelchair because of the accident).  I still have screws to include in a different ball or this ball that came from Jenna's left foot).

 More Jenna ornaments:  Lifeguard (Jenna worked part of July and then had another surgery on her foot from the accident.  She also worked part of August).  Marshmallow guy dressed in orange with gun (for shooting with Grandpa P ... she loved it too!).  BMW - represents the car she was in when she was in her accident over Spring Break.  Guitar - loves to play it.  White shoe (I need to paint it purple to represent the color she wore at Julia's wedding as her bridesmaid).  Swimming - high school swimming.  Ambulance - accident (she didn't ride in one because I didn't think she was injured that badly, I went and picked her up and brought her to the hospital along with Mike, Julia, Jaley and Jadey.  Her friend Ty rode in one).  Accident ball and wheelchair (explained above), temple ornament.

Julia ornaments:
 Saxophone (she learned how to play it this year ... which resulted in major jaw issues ... which lead to jaw surgery on Jan 3, 2013),cupcake and a red mixer, Music Treble Clef sign (Julia is a music major for education), Giraffe and (Julia's favorite animal - giraffe), and temple ornament.  I also have a blown glass ornament of the Denver Temple on order (Julia attended the Denver Temple for the first time to receive her endowments on Nov 24, 2012).

 This is the blown/spun glass ornament of the Denver Temple.

 John and Corin's ornaments:

You will see some of my ornaments are repeats of the kids .... because their memories are mine too - and I am heavily involved in a lot of what they do!

BMW, ball with car pieces and tree pieces, wheelchair (Jenna's accident) .... thankfully a memory now!   , temple ornament, Sudoku ornament (John's favorite down time activity).  I am also waiting for the blow glass Denver temple ornament to represent Julia attending the temple for the first time on Nov 24, 2012.

 It was a very memorable year.  This is my FAVORITE gift to give to my kids each year.  I know they look forward to it too!