time to decorate for Christmas...

Decorating the Christmas tree is one of my favorite traditions. Each ornament is a memory. A reminder of what things caught our interested over that particular year & sometimes a reminder of the giver of the ornament itself. Chris sets out the ornaments each year. These days we prioritize the kids' ornaments because there is limited real estate & we want them to be able to enjoy each of their ornaments from over the years. There will come a day, in the non so distant future, when the kids will have moved on to families of their own & Chris & I will have an empty tree to fill with only our own ornaments. Until then, we are more than willing to forfeit some of our ornaments for their precious memories.   

side note: Landon was also in attendance & helped to decorate the tree. He was also solely wearing sleeping shorts so I thought I would maintain his privacy & spare all of you.

Ashlyn's ornaments this year:

A graduation camp to commemorate her graduation from high school...

A coffee cup to celebrate her first job...

Landon's ornaments:

A basketball hoop, because of course...

and a raccoon, because Landon's favorite animal has long been the raccoon & I realized I have yet to get him a raccoon ornament. I'm pretty sure he would have rather we got him an actual raccoon...

Pepper, always nearby, watched us decorate the tree & was especially interested in Chris' reindeer puff ball ornament. As a result, every year we have to place that ornament slightly higher than the rest. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!