Ornament Souvenirs

Does everyone have their Christmas tree up and decorated yet? It is December 3rd for heaven's sake. Get with the program people. The mall has probably had theirs up for a month already.

I put my tree together (yes, we have a fancy tree in a box) on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Side note: pro of having a fake tree - it doesn't make a mess and it already has the lights attached. Con of having a fake tree - you have to "fluff" it and spread the branches out one by one to make it look normal. Why can't this collections of wires on a pole that has been shoved in a box for the last 11 months pop right out into the shape of a perfect Christmas tree? Rude.

So after I got my tree set up and properly fluffed, I put about 6 ornaments on it and then quit. As the week moved along, I gradually added the remaining ornaments. Yesterday, I finally put the bows on the tree (they are perfect for filling in any weird gaps you have in the tree decor) and finished the darn thing. Now, I get to enjoy its beauty for the next month and pray that my dogs don't accidentally knock it over.

Anyways, on to the actual purpose of this post. Christmas ornament souvenirs. Every time I went on a trip somewhere, I would want to bring home a souvenir but I could never decide what I wanted because all the souvenirs in those typical gift shops are pretty much just cheap crap. So my mom and I started collecting Christmas ornaments from everywhere we traveled. It ended up being a great idea because ornaments aren't that expensive and while you are on the trip you get to engage in the challenge of finding a cool ornament. Surprisingly, it's not that easy to find ornaments everywhere you visit. The best part is every year when you go to decorate the Christmas tree, you get to revisit all the ornaments and in turn the trips themselves. Whenever my mom and I would start decorating the tree together, we would come across an ornament from one of our trips and then we would start telling stories and reliving the memories from that trip. It's a fun experience all around.

When Jared and I got married, I decided to carry on the tradition because I loved it so much. My mom still has all the ornaments that her and I collected together on her tree, so Jared and I started our own collection of just places we have traveled together. We don't have an ornament from every place we have been together because like I said, sometimes it is difficult to find one especially if you are visiting in a season other than Christmas time. My favorite part of decorating our tree this year was placing these souvenir ornaments on the tree and realizing that Jared and I have been very blessed because we have been able to travel to so many places together in only 3.5-ish years of marriage.

Here are a few of the ornaments we have collected on our travels together...

Does anyone else collect Christmas ornaments from the places they travel?