My husband and I married in the month of April almost 22 years ago.  My maid of honor and her husband gave us a lovely wedding gift.  It was a huge box filled with Christmas items:  a handmade, quilted tree skirt, lights, ornaments, and garland.  It was wonderful to have our first Christmas outfitted by them!

Through the years came the “First Christmas” ornaments, the Kindergarten photo ornaments, college ornaments, handmade ornaments.   Our collection was getting so large that I couldn’t fit them all on the tree.    I also couldn’t bear to part with some of the ornaments the kids made. 

With four kids, you accumulate a lot of ornaments!  So I bought a plastic bin for each child and two extra for Mom and Dad.  We keep all the ornaments that were made by that child or given to that child in his or her own bin.  That way, they can put whatever ornaments are special to them on the tree.  And, someday, when they move out on their own, they will have a nice collection started!

I don’t take any special care of the ornaments unless they are extremely fragile.  They are a jumbled mess, but they are fine.  (Except the cinnamon ornaments which got moldy and I pitched.)

And now they are all packed away.  The space feels clean and light.  The bins go into a bigger plastic bin and are stored in our crawl space under our stairs.

OK, now I feel complete!  No more Christmas posts!