Oh Christmas Tree...

During the Christmas season that we lived in Germany, Tyler and I started a collection of beautiful Christmas ornaments.  It was our Christmas married and there are few places better for buying ornaments than Germany.  Each year when I unpack our ornaments to put on the tree, I'm reminded of that first Christmas we spent together and, even more, I'm reminded to be grateful for the opportunity to celebrate this year with our families.  

This year, I knew our tree probably wouldn't withstand being trimmed by Tye or the jostling of a toddler and a 115 pound dog (especially one chasing the other at high speeds), so we decided to put only non-breakable ornaments on our tree.  We didn't buy anything new, just edited what we normally put on the tree.  The result might be my favorite family tree ever.   

Homemade cinnamon-scented ornaments made last year as Tye watched:

 A collection of straw ornaments that are so common on Scandinavian trees,

 alongside some red felt angel cutout ornaments;

pine cones, to bring a little of the outdoors in;

 

meaningful but non-fragile ornaments, like the wooden angels from my childhood and this Scandinavian doll from my grandparents;

 Danish hearts, just like the ones we made to hang on the tree growing up;

 and red wooden bead garland handed down to me by my parents.

The result feels like it fits us very well- very nature-inspired and steeped with tradition and family connections that go back even further than our fragile German ornaments.  Next year perhaps we'll be able to hang our collection of German nutcracker ornaments on the tree as well, but this year, Tye has made them her new favorite dolls to play with daily.  Hearing Tye talk to and about her nutcrackers every day is well worth a slightly barer tree.