Favorite Ornaments

I'm still decorating for Christmas over here at the House of Trotti. I might actually have it complete by Christmas Eve....maybe. LOL.

Our girls decorated the tree this year, and although there are many ornaments that are smooshed together and not quite in the place that I would have put them, I left it just as they decorated it. It's perfect in my opinion. I have decided that after this year I am going to purge a few ornaments from my collection. The tree is so full and I left a handful off this year just to make sure there was no overcrowding. It's obvious that did not help. LOL.

As with most of our ornaments there is usually a story behind them and although we have many, many, many that our girls have made (might I mention that I love every single one of them) I have a select few that are my absolute favorites that I would like to share with you today.

The first one is a bird's nest. Yes, this is a real bird's nest, and no, it wasn't found at our house on the ground or picked up in the woods while we were hiking, this bird's nest is special to me because it was found in the very first Christmas tree that my husband and my girl's chopped down together. We didn't find it right away. It actually went through the whole holiday season and I was taking down all the ornaments I reached in to grab one and hit it with my hand. Had never noticed it when we put it up, and the tree was pretty dense so I guess we just overlooked it. I pulled it out and couldn't believe the find. It not only was a very perfect little nest, but it had broken egg shells in it. ♥ The eggs you see in the pic are of course ones I picked up at the craft store and replaced, but these eggs are around the same size that were originally in there. We put the nest on our tree every year to be displayed and we always get a few inquiries on it. We also heard that in Icelandic lore, it is good luck to find a bird's nest in your Christmas tree. How cool is that?

My second favorite ornament is my Sac State Christmas tree. My cousin Little Denny is a very talented crafter. Her and her mom, my great Aunt, who has now since passed on, have always been super crafty and every year we would get a homemade ornament from them. In December 1999, I was about to graduate from California State University Sacramento with my Bachelor's degree. I had been in college for five years, working two jobs and was done in. I was getting to that point of not even wanting to walk in the ceremony in December, I just wanted to be done. One day in early December, prior to my graduation, I go over to my parent's house and this was waiting for me wrapped in a cute little bow from my cousin Little Denny. It reminds me of my big accomplishment and how much hard work it took to get there, so I proudly display it on our tree every year.

My third favorite ornament is my cookie monster. This one is near and dear to my heart because my Aunt Suzie made this for me. Can you tell that I come from a long line of craftiness? This actually isn't the original. My mom has the original dough ornament that she made when I was a little girl hanging on her tree and although it's my favorite, she wouldn't give it up. I kinda think it's her favorite too. So a few years back, Aunt Suzie or Suz Suz as we refer to her, made me another cookie monster to hang on our tree. I love it and so do the girls.