Yearly Ornament Shopping

Ok, I don't think I've ever posted about this before, but I collect Christmas ornaments. Hang on, before you pass judgement let me state that I'm not one of those crazy ladies who has like 4 different Christmas trees and they're all color-coordinated or anything. Please, I'm 25 and work 6 days a week, I'm lucky if I can find enough time to put up/take down a single tree.

Growing up my Aunt Lynn owned a Hallmark store, Lynn's Hallmark (very fitting name). When I was five or six she started sending me ornaments for Christmas. It started with one angel every year, from a collection called Mary's Angels. Then she started sending me Barbie ornaments. I had a few Barbies growing up but I wasn't really a Barbie-type of girl (I later sold them on eBay, which makes me feel sort of guilty but whatever). The angels, though, I loved. It was my job to take them out every year and put them on the tree. When it was time to take them down I would put them back in their respective boxes, one by one, carefully wrapping them in bubblewrap and putting their hangers in the box with them so they didn't get lost in storage. They were such a huge part of my Christmas tradition.

I moved into my first apartment when I was 19. I got my first Christmas tree, a pre-lit one from Home Depot. I brought all of MY ornaments from my parents' house and decorated it, sparsely, with pride. That was the year the ornaments stopped coming. I was over 18 and living on my own. Every year since then I've gone to Hallmark in July, the weekend of the ornament premiere, and picked up my ornaments for the year. I still have all of the Mary's Angels ornaments, plus some new series' like Snowball and Tuxedo (it's a big polar bear and a little penguin, it reminds me of Brian and me!) and Fairy Messengers (ignore the totally lame names) which my mom started buying for me. Here are the ornaments I bought for this year (in case anyone cares, which I kind of doubt):

Snowball and Tuxedo

Mary's Angels

Penguin guys. They don't have a name but I get one every year.

Waltz of the Snowflakes! (I got Sugar Plum Fairy last year. I have an unhealthy love for the Nutcracker).

Marigold Fairy

Those are just the Hallmark Ornaments. My mom also makes her own ornaments. Every year I get at least one new one. They're so pretty, so much intricate bead work and the fact that my mom makes them by hand makes them that much more special. This is the first one she ever made me, when she was pregnant with me. I took this photo from my tree two years ago: