Being a Mom and Creating Christmas Magic

Now I know, this is a teaching blog, but I thought I would take just a moment to share this with you.

While decorating, my family talks about the ornaments we are hanging up. Every family does this. But my tree is a little different. Lots of our ornaments are not ornaments at all. They are keepsakes. We have a few so far, but I have big plans. My hope is that by the time I have grandchildren we need to have two trees! The
second tree might be named our family tree. I have visions of my life 40 years from now… I’ll be 40 pounds overweight, like all grandmas should be. Pleasingly plump and jolly, I will welcome in generations of my family, and we will decorate the family tree. Each person will have trinkets from their life on this tree, cherished things that children throw away and wish they had not : matchbox cars, their first traffic ticket, tickets to the prom… Anything (within reason) that my family gives me will go on the tree.

Currently, I am well on my way to being 40 pounds overweight and these are the things I plan to save for my son (most I wish I had saved from my own childhood) : There is no particular order to my list:

Kindergarten report card, rolled as a scroll with a ribbon tie.

Picture of his first soccer goal (I caught it on film)

First car keys (with his test paper from the DMV rolled and tied with ribbon)

Keys to all the places he has lived (college dorm, apartment, first house)

A little ring with movie ticket stubs of the movies he has seen (We have 7 so far)

A corner of his favorite blanket (If any part of it survives)

A ring of his Santa pictures. You can scan in photos at Target and make them small in the collage setting. (2x3 photos are working well for me, and 4 of them fit on a single 4X6 photo, so its cheap.)

Pictures of his art projects (same idea as the Santa pictures)

His first traffic ticket (grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

First detention slip (It is not funny when it happens, but it’s a great memory-if the detention is for chewing gum in class. If the detention is for a serious offense, he’s dead meat.)

High school ID cards

Tickets to events he attends

Tickets to events we attend to watch him (play Rachmaninoff at the piano recital, play football as the star quarterback, play the lead in Bye Bye Birdie….. a mother can dream right?)

Receipt for his wife’s engagement ring. . . .

Like I said, anything that is keepsake can go on the tree.

On our tree now, have a ring going for tickets to plays my husband and I attend.I kept our wedding place card holders.I think I am going to have a shoe box in my closet that simply reads,

"momentos/ornaments for this year's tree"