newbies.

I. Love. Christmas. Ornaments.
I mean, sure...Christmas is my favorite time of year, so it's natural that I would love ornaments. But seriously, they're just so pretty. Each family's Christmas tree seems to tell a story!
We have 2.
Cale has his own in his room, filled with lots of "special" ornaments...dried playdoh star masterpieces, tiny glitter balls courtesy of Target's dollar spot, handprint turkeys...and several "stolen" ornaments from Mommy's tree (that I don't "need"). :)
Then, we have our lovely 7 foot family (Mommy's tree) in the living room. We've had this for 2 or 3 years now.
When Tim and I first got married, we purchased a teeny little "Charlie Brown" tree, complete with 'pine' that shed all over the floor and about 20 sparse branches that would droop whenever an ornament of even the lightest weight would be draped upon it. But, it was our first tree, and it told a story.
A story of wealth...or the lack therof.
And here's the song I "wrote" about it in 2004:

"Oh Christmas tree, our Nester tree...
Thy leaves are poor, like we are...
How lovely though - thy popcorn string, the twinkle lights, your color green...
Oh Christmas tree, our Nester tree...
Thy leaves are poor, like we are."

((Nice, right?? :))
Anyway, that first Christmas, my mom bought us a bunch of ornaments to help furnish said tree. I think I still have most, if not all of them.
Well, after several years, and a generous gift card to Menards, we decided to move on to bigger and better things. We "bit the bullet" and bought a beautiful fake tree that I very much like. This tree is heavy, and takes quite awhile to assemble...but it has lots of strong branches.
Problem is...now the ornaments look sparse.
As a tradition growing up, my mom got one new ornament each year and labeled it with the date. She also got an ornament with a small picture frame in it, and filled it with a picture of my brother, sister and I. Every 5th year, she got 3 of the picture ones, with our pictures individually taken.


Though I'm not as strict in the picture frame ornament department, I do hope to get more and more pics of the kids on the tree.
For now though, the object is bulk. We just need MORE!!
So, this year, I've decided I would splurge a little and get several new ornaments appropriate to 2010. ((Obviously, my favorite ones are personalized. :))

Mommy's pregnant belly ornament:

Gingerbread Nesters:The fellas - Cale, Megersa, Thaddeus, Zachery: