It’s funny that our guest writer, Sharon, wrote about grandchildren ornaments because that’s what I’ve been thinking about this week.
Christmas always made me feel special. The hugs, the gifts, the traditions…they all made me feel loved.
And what better way to feel special than to have an ornament with your very own name and birth year inscribed on it?
Each child in our family has a similar ornament. Whenever this ornament would finally be rescued from the storage boxes and placed on the tree, I would think about how it was made especially for me and I would feel oh-so-special.
Even more special was Grandma and Grandpa’s tree.
As soon as we walked in their door Christmas day, we would rush into the living room to look at the tree. We were always amazed at the amount of presents stacked underneath, but that was never our first stop.
No, we first looked for our ornament. My grandparents have a duplicate gold ornament inscribed with the name and birth year of every grandchild. With a gazillion grandchildren, it always took a while to find our own ornaments.
It’s funny to me that, after searching Grandma and Grandpa’s tree each year, touching probably every ornament in my quest to find my own, I cannot describe a single ornament other than mine.
Even though the tree was filled with emblems of Grandma and Grandpa’s love for each grandchild, the only emblem that mattered to me was the one that said they loved me individually.
My husband and I are trying to carry on that feeling of individuality and “special-ness” with our daughter as we create simple and special traditions just for her, including a new ornament (or two) each year.
As we trimmed our tree last Monday, I showed her the five ornaments that are in her collection (some from her own grandparents). I explained what they meant, who they were from and why they made us think of her when we bought them. Her little 2 year old eyes and ears were glued to the ornaments and my explanations during our talk.
I’m sure she didn’t understand everything I said, but her rapt attention for longer than 30 seconds proved to me that she understood my message:
“You are special, Sweet Pea.”
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Good traditions are important – they’re part of who we are. I think it’s great that you’re taking your traditions, changing and making them your own, and passing them on.