Sunday Snapshot

This week's Sunday Snapshot is about Christmas. Stefanie asked for suggestions on just what to feature and I decided that I would feature some of our Christmas ornaments and decorations that have special meaning to me. I also HAVE to add the "out-takes" from the 2009 Christmas card photo that I have YET to mail!! My friends and family may be getting an Apres Christmas Card this year!! Hehe!! As always you can grab the button and join in!!



When I was a little girl, I LOVED Mary and the story of baby Jesus and the Nativity. So much so that when I was in middle school I wrote, directed and of course played the part of Mary in a Christmas play called, "Let's keep Christ in Christmas!" This was wwwaaaayyy back when Xmas had become the thing to say and I hated it!! I mean, honestly, who in the world started that anyway!! How lazy can you be to have to write or say Xmas instead of Christmas!!! Anyway, that year for Christmas, my parents gave me a handmade nativity scene and it was the most beautiful nativity scene I had ever seen and I have treasured it ever since!!! I have to say that it is the best gift I have ever gotten and my all time favorite Christmas decoration.



One of my other favs is a beautiful angel that was given to me by my beautiful Mother-in-law. She had it made from a handkerchief that belonged to her Mother-in-law whose name was the same as mine!! It is another one of those wonderful gifts that can be handed down and has such love behind it!



One of my other favorite decorations does not have history or love or any special meaning behind it! I just thought it was great when I saw it and perfectly suits us down here!!



Next, I have to feature some of the ornaments on our tree. Our tree is not fancy or designer in any way. It is, however, full of child made ornaments, puppy love ornaments and ornaments that remind us of all the beautiful blessings we have in our lives!!!

This one is from Hubby and my first Christmas together. It was just us and our 5 dogs!!!



This one represents all of the many ornaments that we have that holds our precious pictures. I say every year that I should get one of those fancy ornament trees to show off our picture ornaments but I am afraid that then, our poor tree would be bare!! LOL!!



This ornament is brand new this year. I thought I would try to give Lizzie an ornament each year to represent her birth country. This one says Merry Christmas in Chinese.



We also have an ornament for every dog we have ever had. This one is Tippy's ornament. We lost Tippy in October of this year.



We also have many child made ornaments such as this one that I will always treasure!



The topper for our tree is a sweet and very old angel. This angel was actually in a bouquet of flowers that my great aunts had given me when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I fell in love with that angel and insisted that we put her on the top if our tree every year. Now, the kids take turns each year placing her on the top of my "grown up" tree!! This year, it was Lizzie's turn.



The last decoration I would like to feature is an ornament that was made by our friend/babysitter last year. It was Lizzie's first Christmas with us and our very sweet friend painted some ornaments for us with the kids' hand prints. It was the first time Lizzie had ever decorated anything with her beautiful little hand print. Lizzie has missing, fused and small fingers and I just adore her very unique little hand print. Since then, she has decorated lots of wonderful things for us with her hand print but that very first one on that Christmas ornament last year, will always be the most beautiful to me. When I brought it out this year, it took me right back to Lizzie's first Christmas with us last year and how very far she has come!!



And as promised, the Christmas card pic out-takes!!







Needless to say, we are still working on it!!! Photoshop here I come!! Hehe!!