The first gift..

Christmas is 39 days, 8 hours, 38 mins, and 47 seconds away!  I LOVE Christmas, I love it with a capital L!  I love the busy, the bustle, the music, the gifts, the kids wonderment, the acknowledgement of our savior and the general feel of "common" that falls over all of us.  We all have similar to-do lists, but we all do them in our own ways!  We have different Traditions, recipes, wish lists.  For many years now, my mom and I have gone to the Country Christmas Craft fair at the merchandise mart together.  This year, it was Novemeber 2nd!!  2 days after Halloween felt super early, but we went and had a blast!  I left humming Christmas tunes and was ready to get into the Christmas spirit.  At the craft fair every year, I look for our annual ornament for our tree.  NOT an original idea, obviously, but our family ornaments have a story and a special meaning.  It is our purposeful first gift, every year.

Clay, water, paint and our very best Tradition!

Rewind to Decemeber, 2000.  I was a Junior in high school dating "latterman" and it was our first Christmas together.  In typical Brian and Kendra fashion (which means there is nothing typical about it) we got a puppy and what would end up being our first of many handmade clay ornaments.  

Next week, when I get out all of our Christmas stuff and put up our tree, I will do another post with ALL of the ornaments.  BUT, looking back at these ornaments is so fun!  Watching our family grow.  The first few years, Brian, Kendra and Cooper.  Followed by a year where we had two new doggies added, then shortly thereafter, a preggo wife with daddy and dogs, and now we need a massive ornament with 7 spots (which require a serious branch on our live tree!  a dinky branch will no longer hold our large family of 7).  It is a tradition that Brian and I both love.  He is always excited to see this years ornament and I look at them with adoration for my life and how it has blossomed into a family of 7. I know next year, we will have one less, as our puppy from that Christmas is just about at the end of his life.  

I hope to have a loud Christmas gathering every year, a dining room full of kids, grandkids and great grandkids and a HUGE tree in the front room with nothing but our special clay family ornaments to admire and, when they all go home and the house is quiet, I picture Brian and I looking through each and every year, every memory.

It's the simple things, and for us, the first gift is a symbol of our family...

Ever changing and ever constant.