Every year for Christmas, my husband and I pick out a Christmas ornament together.  We’ve been doing this since before we got married, and it’s become a cherished part of our Christmas tradition.

We try to choose something that is representative of our year together, or at least an occasion during the year.  And we try to find something that is not too fragile.  There have been years, and this might be another one, where this ornament consumes the entirety of our minuscule Christmas budget.  But even when money is tight we still find a way to make the holiday special and memorable.

The ornament above was from my birthday last year, and commemorates a trip when Aaron took my mom and I on a cruise out to Blake Island for a Native American feast and dance.  We’re still on the lookout for the perfect ornament for this year.  Perhaps something baby oriented?  We’ll see…

We plan to continue this tradition with the baby as well, buying her an ornament each year that memorializes an event and the year.  Then, when she’s grown and ready to go off on her own, she will already have a starter set of Christmas ornaments.