Stay Connected

Friday, December 4, 2020

Two Special Ornaments for Our Tree

If you have grown children who have moved out and on with their lives, this may resonate with you. 

When my son and daughter-in-law married, it became time for them to establish some of their own traditions. All of my kids have collected Christmas ornaments since their early childhoods. And each year, they would put their own ornaments on our family tree. 

With a new family unit formed a couple of years ago, it was time for my son and daughter-in-law to take their ornaments for their own home. As a mom, there's a sadness in that for me. I don't get to look at the collection of boat and airplane ornaments that my son chose in his youth. And I don't get to see the angels, hearts, and stars that we'd given to my daughter-in-law when she was still a girlfriend/fiancée. Those ornaments have their own home now.

Two Christmases ago, our family began a new tradition for tree ornaments. When one of ours moves out and on with their life, they get a special ornament for our tree that lives in our home. I took two of our plain glass ball ornaments and used a gilded pen to write each of their names on them. Last night, I lovingly placed the "Angie" and "Chris" ornaments on our tree, knowing that while the two of them physically live somewhere else, I hold them close in my heart always.

sniff, sniff Someone pass me the tissue box.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

8 comments:

  1. That is one of the hardest parts of being a Mom.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Cheryl,
      the letting go and also watching my kids suffer in some way have been the hardest parts of being a mom for me. I never really thought about those aspects before having children.
      Have a wonderful weekend, Cheryl!

      Delete
  2. Letting go is hard but an important part of being a parent. What a nice new tradition you have started, though, as things changed.

    However, things could have worked out differently. I have a friend who collected ornaments with/for her son while he was growing up. When she tried to give them to him with his new wife, the new wife said she wasn't interested and that they would get their own. I guess we have to remember sometimes that our nostalgia doesn't mean much to someone else.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      I'm so sorry for your friend's experience. That must have stung for her. I hope your friend hung onto the ornaments. Just because a young wife wants to edit her new husband's memories doesn't mean the mom needs to. Future grandkids would probably enjoy seeing items that once belonged to their dad and hearing some stories of his childhood.

      Have a wonderful weekend, Live and Learn!

      Delete
  3. I love this! With my son being a high school senior, I'm having to think about him moving on with his life. I think the special ornaments would be a good way to maintain an emotional connection.

    I've given my kids an ornament every year for Christmas with the plan that they will have something to decorate their tree as young adults. I remember not having much of anything when I moved out and having to get creative to fill up the space on my tree. I know the trend now is for a tree which is more of a coordinated decoration rather than miscellaneous ornaments so I bet that's where the young wife that L&L mentioned was coming from. If you have room for 2 trees then I think a themed one and a "regular" tree would be fun but personally I prefer something with more of an emotional hook instead of "pretty". And taking others feelings into account is important. Maybe the young wife could have found another way to display the ornaments from her husband's growing up years? Displaying then in a glass vase or a bowl with pine cones? I have ornaments from my grandmother and I have them in glass vases with a gold bow on the vase. I can enjoy them and honor her memory and also not worry about them being inadvertently broken.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      Your first Christmas tree sounds a bit like mine. I was definitely creative in filling that small tree. I made paper snowflakes and made bows out of scraps of red printed fabric that was leftover from making a couple of decorative pillows. Your kids will have something for their first trees.

      I love your idea to display special ornaments in a bowl or vase. My son and daughter-in-law displayed their ornaments from our home on their mantel that first year, tucked into greenery.

      Have a great evening, Kris!

      Delete

Thank you for joining the discussion today. Here at creative savv, we strive to maintain a respectful community centered around frugal living. Creative savv would like to continue to be a welcoming and safe place for discussion, and as such reserves the right to remove comments that are inappropriate for the conversation.

FOLLOW CREATIVE SAVV ON BLOGLOVIN'

Follow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be a voice that helps someone else on their frugal living journey

Are you interested in writing for creative savv?
What's your frugal story?

Do you have a favorite frugal recipe, special insight, DIY project, or tips that could make frugal living more do-able for someone else?

Creative savv is seeking new voices.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

share this post