It's about remembering our Savior Jesus Christ's birth and His wonderful life and sacrifice. It's a time to be with family and remember our heritage and blessings and help create a brighter future for our posterity. It's about recalling the year, its highlights, low lights and the lessons we learned.
When Adam and I were married 4 1/2 years ago today, actually. We decided that we wanted our married life to be full of traditions that were filled with remembering. One of the traditions we started on our very first Christmas was our Christmas Travel Tree.We love to travel together and have been very blessed to do so often these past few years. It doesn't matter if it's a weekend trip to St. George, a road trip to see Mount Rushmore or a cruise around the Tahitian Islands--we have loved the time we get to spend together. Some of the best memories I have with my sweet husband are on these trips. We get to explore new places, experience different cultures, and talk about our hopes and dreams.
(Christmas ornaments from 2006-09 travels)
We decided that we would never just buy ornaments for ornaments sake, but rather, we would collect ornaments from our travels and special life events.
Here's how the Olsen Christmas Travel Tree works:
We keep a little rod iron tree on a chest of drawers in our bedroom all year long. When we go on a trip, we pick an ornament out and when we return home we put it on the iron tree to admire until we decorate it the day after Thanksgiving.
The picture to your left was taken early Fall 2010. It is pretty full since we had a busy year full of fun.
When we decorate our tree, we put each ornament on the tree one by one and share a memory from the trip. I look forward to this day all year long. We reminisce about crazy flight delays, fun chats on a long road trip, people watching and favorite new restaurants we discover.
Then when we take our tree down on January 2 we box all the ornaments up, and start all over with a blank rod iron tree for the new year.
Our Christmas Travel Tree and its ornaments are some of my most prized possessions. I can't imagine how beautiful and full our tree will be after 40 years of marriage and a little family to pick out more ornaments!
Merry Christmas Eve to you and yours!
2 comments:
So cool! Love it!
Great post, Becky. I love this tradition. It makes decorating the Christmas tree a time of reliving memories and talking about the fun, adventurous and sometimes quirky trips we've taken over the months and years.
I love how each ornament is unique and carries a story with it.
Here's hoping we can continue to go on cool trips to fill this wiry old tree to capacity!
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